• Forum
• SITREP
• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security

• Space

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Public Eye

First MetOp satellite ready to leave for Baikonour

* Launch scheduled for end of June
* First European weather satellite to operate from low Earth orbit
* Increasing accuracy in the mid-term forecast

Final preparation of the first Metop satellite is on-track at EADS Astrium Toulouse, in readiness for its scheduled launch by Starsem 30 June, using a Soyuz rocket from the Baïkonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. EADS Astrium is the satellite prime contractor and responsible for three of the twelve instruments on board of the spacecraft.

Toulouse/Friedrichshafen/Darmstadt, 21 March 2006

MetOp is the first in a series of three satellites built by EADS Astrium for the European Space Agency (ESA) and Europe’s weather satellite organisation EUMETSAT. As partners in this cooperative venture the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), provide payload instruments embarked on the satellite.

MetOp will become Europe’s first polar-orbiting satellite dedicated to operational meteorology. It represents Europe’s contribution to a new cooperative venture with the United States providing data that will be used to monitor our climate and improve weather forecasting.

Following completion of its full environmental test campaign, the spacecraft passed its acceptance review last year and is currently being used for the validation of the complete system, which includes a compatibility test between the satellite and the ground segment. The success of this final verification phase will clear the way for the shipment of the satellite to the launch site in April.

The two other satellites in the series to be flown at 4.5-year intervals to ensure an operational service over at least 14 years, have been completed except for the integration of a few instruments which have yet to be delivered by the customer. These spacecrafts will remain in storage until just prior to their respective launch, when the final instruments will be installed.

MetOp embarks 12 different instruments, which are specifically designed to enable the satellite to achieve its principal mission objectives - meteorological observation and climate monitoring, whilst also supporting other missions including search and rescue and the monitoring of charged particles in the low Earth orbit environment.

EADS Astrium SAS France is the satellite prime contractor, and has managed an industrial team of more than 50 contractors. Its is specifically responsible for the satellite system and the satellite service module which is based upon the platform developed in Toulouse for observation satellites and already successfully flown eleven time for various missions (SPOT, ERS, Envisat, Helios).

The MetOp payload module (PLM) is built by EADS Astrium GmbH Germany. It accommodates the instruments and the associated monitoring and control subsystems . The PLM is based on Envisat payload module which was also built by EADS Astrium, Friedrichshafen.

In addition, EADS Astrium Germany is responsible for two main instruments on Metop the “Advanced Scatterometer” (ASCAT) and the “GNSS Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding” (GRAS).

ASCAT is an active radar instrument which measures wind speed and direction over the open sea. It also provides data for ice and snow coverage as well as surface moisture. ASCAT measurements are independent of daylight and clouds which is particularly useful in the Polar Regions. ASCAT will scan two 500 kilometre wide corridors and can, therefore, provide almost global coverage within 24 hours.

GRAS, built under the responsibility of EADS Astrium by Saab Ericsson, is a receiver for the signals from the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS). The signals are affected by the atmosphere of the Earth, and after processing provide atmospheric data such as temperature, water vapour and pressure. Furthermore GRAS provides navigation measurement data to support the precise orbit determination of the Metop satellite.

The Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) was designed and built by EADS Astrium in Portsmouth in the UK for EUMETSAT. MHS scans the Earth’s atmosphere to measure emitted radiation in various spectra bands and from this can determine the water vapour content (clouds, precipitation, humidity) at various altitudes. The first MHS instrument was launched on 19 May 2005 aboard NOAA-N polar-orbiting satellite of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).and is already providing high quality data for global weather forecasters.

In addition, EADS Astrium at Stevenage designed and built the service module mechanical system for the spacecraft including the structure and propulsion system.

EADS Astrium is Europe’s leading satellite system specialist. Its activities cover complete civil and military telecommunications and Earth observation systems, science and navigation programmes, and all spacecraft avionics and equipment. EADS Astrium is a subsidiary of EADS SPACE. In 2005 EADS SPACE had a turnover of €2.7 billion and 11,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain.

EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2005, EADS generated revenues of €34.2 billion and employed a workforce of more than 113,000.

Metop satellite technical data

Lifetime:	5 years
orbit:	Sun synchronous at an altitude between 800 to 850 km. The satellite will not pass exactly over the geographic poles and is slightly inclined at an angle of 98.7° to the equator.
Mass:	4085 kg
Dimensions:	6.3m high, 2.5m x 2.5m wide (In-orbit configuration 17.6m x 6.6m x 5.0m)
Power:	(1813 W power demand
Attitude:	3-axis stabilized
Communications:	Omnidirectional S-band antenna coverage Payload data downlinked via X-band (70 Mbps data rate) for each orbit Real time broadcasting of payload data (full in UHF, subset in VHF)
Costs:	Total programme including three satellites, launchers, ground segment and operations cost 2.4 billion Euro, of which 1.85 billion Euro are financed by EUMETSAT and 550 million Euro by ESA for satellite development.

 

Contacts for the media
Rémi Roland
EADS SPACE (FR)
Tel.: +33 (0)1 42 24 27 34

Frédéric-Pierre Isoz
EADS SPACE (FR)
Tel.: +33 (0) 1 42 24 28 77

Jeremy Close
EADS SPACE (UK)
Tel.: +44 (0)1438 77 38 72

Mathias Pikelj
EADS SPACE (GER)
Tel.: +49 (0)7545 8 91 23