Successful drift stop manoeuvre of MSG-3

After handover from ESOC, EUMETSAT completed today (24 July) the MSG-3 drift stop manoeuvre.

Tuesday 24 July 2012

This manoeuvre was executed in two parts, the first one took place at 15:36 UTC on Monday 23 July and the second one 12 hours apart, at 03:33 UTC this morning (24 July). Given the drift rate of the satellite the manoeuvre was required to 'put on the brakes' to position the satellite at the longitude of 3.4 degrees West where MSG-3 will remain for the duration of the in-orbit commissioning. After this the satellite will be manoeuvred to reach 0 degrees at the beginning of 2013 to become the prime geostationary satellite of EUMETSAT.

During last week a number of other important activities took place mainly related to the satellite radio frequency tests and the activation of the different ground stations: Primary Ground Station at Usingen (Germany), Backup and Ranging Ground Station at Maspalomas (Spain) and Secondary Back-up Ground station at Cheia (Romania).

Last Updated: 23 July, 2012 16:16