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Environmental Satellite Envisat Ready for Operation

Kourou/Friedrichshafen, le 01 mars 2002

* Contact established by the ground station - deployed solar array
* Monitoring of global climatic phenomena for five years
* Astrium emphasises the leading role in Earth observation

Envisat, Europe's largest environmental satellite with a mass of 8.2 tons, is now in its orbit. This climate monitoring satellite of the European Space Agency ESA, built by the Astrium space company, was successfully launched on board an Ariane 5 booster on Friday, March 1, 2002 at 2:07:59 a.m. (CET). Upon successful first ground contact and faultless deployment of the solar array, this spacecraft can soon start its operation after an in-orbit test and calibration phase.

26:35 minutes after the successful launch from the European Space Centre in Kourou, French Guyana, the satellite with a size of 10 x 4 x 4 metres was separated from the upper stage. At the same time the ground stations Svalbard (Norway) and Pokerflat (Canada) received the first signal from Envisat. About one hour after lift-off, the 70 square metre solar array could be easily extended and, immediately afterwards, re-charging of the batteries was initiated. In all, this has been a promising start to this five-year environmental mission. In the coming weeks, an extensive test and calibration phase will follow prior to taking up routine operation.

"We take pride in the successful development and the successful construction of Envisat which emphasises the leading position of Astrium in satellite-based Earth observation. Envisat adds another chapter to the excellent balance shown by Astrium with the Spot and ERS satellite series", says Dr. Klaus Ensslin member of the board of Astrium. With its ten complex instruments, Envisat will mark a new era in European environmental observation, adds Dr. Ensslin.

During the mission of at least five years, Envisat will orbit the Earth every 100 minutes by revisiting every part of the Earth's surface every 35 days. Ten advanced instruments on board Envisat will help scientists gain a better understanding of global warming, climatic changes and ozone depletion, as well as changes in the oceans, the ice caps, vegetation and the composition of the atmosphere. Envisat's radar system - which operates independently of the time of day and weather conditions - will send microwave pulses to the Earth's surface and, by measuring the reflected pulses, will deliver valuable images of the seas and the land masses. This understanding is becoming more important given the scale of the recent climatic events.

From a scientific and application point of view, the Envisat instruments form an ideal payload combination to monitor and explore our Earth and its atmosphere. The complete payload comprises seven ESA instruments and three to be provided by the national space agencies of Germany/the Netherlands, France and Great Britain. Five of these instruments were developed and built by Astrium. These are:

ASAR, the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar, is a high-resolution radar delivering valuable ocean and land images regardless of time of day and weather conditions. It is the largest instrument on board Envisat and a product of Astrium UK.

AATSR, the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer, also a product of the U.K., measures the sea surface temperatures and monitors the land vegetation.

GOMOS, the Global Ozone Monitoring by the Occultation of Stars, was built in Toulouse and is to be used for exploring the processes causing ozone depletion in the stratosphere.

MIPAS, the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding, was developed in Ottobrunn, near Munich. It is to be used for simultaneous measurement of more than twenty trace gases in the atmosphere.

Sciamachy, the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography, is a German-Dutch joint development built by Astrium in Friedrichshafen. It allows high-precision determination of trace gases, aerosols, cloud height and coverage.

The technical backbone of the satellite is the Polar Platform which consists of two main assemblies: the Service Module (SM) and the Payload Module (PLM). The SM, for example, accommodates the components for power supply, attitude and orbit control, as well as data transfer, whilst the PLM carries the instruments and associated systems including instrument data transmission for Earth observation and atmospheric research. The Polar Platform is a further development of the Spot satellite platform of Astrium. ESA's successful ERS satellites were also based on developments of the Spot family of satellites.

The industrial contract is worth about 1.5 billion euros in total. The development and construction of Envisat has taken about ten years, with the involvement of about 100 companies in 14 countries. Astrium sites in Germany, the U.K. and France have participated in the programme with Astrium (U.K), as the prime contractor for the Polar Platform and two of the instruments, Astrium (Germany), as mission prime with overall responsibility for the instruments, the Payload Equipment Bay (PEB) and two instruments, Astrium (France), as supplier of the Service Module and other instruments.

Astrium, Europe's leading space company, is a joint venture owned 75 per cent by EADS European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company and 25 per cent by BAE SYSTEMS. With 9,100 employees in France, Germany, U.K. and Spain, Astrium recorded annual revenues of 1.9 billion euros in 2001. Its activities cover science and Earth observation, telecommunications, navigation, ground stations, military programmes, launchers, and space infrastructure.

Friedrichshafen, March 1, 2002/02009

For further information:

Astrium
Earth Observation and Science
Mathias Pikelj
Phone: +49-7545 8-9123
Fax: +49-7545 8-5589
E-mail: presse-eo@astrium-space.com