In June this year EUMETSAT will launch another weather satellite into space. Initially it will be known as MSG-3, then, once commissioning is complete, it will be called Meteosat-10.

The intensive testing, over five days, involved the operations team at EUMETSAT, ESOC, ESTEC, and industry partners. A very large number of commands were sent from EUMETSAT and ESOC to the MSG-3 satellite at the Thales Alenia Space premises in Cannes and the satellite subsystems reactions verified by receiving telemetry from Thales.

The testing

The tests were conducted by the MSG operations team from the validation Central Facility (CF VAL). An extensive team from EUMETSAT made the test possible by providing the support needed to set up the MSG Control System; communications between Thales and EUMETSAT, and interface systems between the satellite and our control system.

Three of the five days were EUMETSAT testing, and two were ESOC testing.

During the five days:

• there were 45 hours of satellite contact time;
• EUMETSAT sent 1,306 commands;
• EUMETSAT and ESOC demonstrated a number of critical activities, recovering from the most degraded case (safe modes) to the operational configuration;
• both demonstrated success in other critical GEO and LEO on-orbit activities, including the very critical prime payload baffle/cooler firings and (SEVIRI) scan mirror unlocking;

At the EUMETSAT control room around a dozen engineers and analysts contributed to the operation. At the Thales Alenia Space premises, the Thales AIT (Assembly Integration and Test) Team prepared the satellite for the tests and continuously monitored the health of the satellite. EUMETSAT provided a couple of engineers to operate the EUMETSAT ground support equipment and ESOC provided an engineer to operate their ground support equipment. Imperial College of London were also brought into the voice loop for the GERB instrument activities.

Next steps

The results of these tests are added to the MSG-3 Readiness for Shipment Review (RSR), which itself is an input to the MSG-3 System Readiness Review (SRR). After a successful SRR, activities can begin to prepare MSG-3 for shipping to the launch site in Kourou.

In EUMETSAT, preparations of the MSG-3 operations continues. The next milestones are the SRR and the Operational System Validation tests. Two months before launch the Operational System Validation will mark the completion of the preparation phase and will confirm our readiness to operate MSG-3 in-orbit.

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