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European Space Agency

Press Release

Lift off!
Separation is successfully completed

2 June 2003
 
"We're ready to go!" is the best way to summarise the activities of
the last three weeks here in Baikonur, reports Michael Witting, Mars
Express launch campaign manager, in the final installment of our Mars
Express diary before tonight's launch. 

Watch the launch replay on Mars Express launch site.
 
The Mars Express spacecraft has been successfully loaded with
propellant and oxidizer, giving it enough fuel to ensure its proper
insertion into Martian orbit just around Christmas this year. This
activity marked the end of the "stand-alone operations" for Mars
Express here in Baikonur, and from now on each activity in the "
combined operations" phase had to be closely coordinated with the
launcher teams.

The spacecraft was then mated with the Launch Vehicle Adapter, which
provides the interface with the Fregat upper stage of the launcher,
and caters for the separation system that enables proper injection of
Mars Express into its interplanetary trajectory.

It was then integrated onto the Fregat upper stage, which performs
all necessary manoeuvres in low earth orbit, before Mars Express is
separated and sent alone on its way to Mars. 

Next, the payload fairing, which protects the spacecraft during the
atmospheric ascent of the rocket, was installed. This is done with
the spacecraft in a horizontal position.

Finally, the Fregat upper stage and spacecraft were mated with the
Soyuz launcher's 1st and 2nd stages in the launch vehicle integration
building. 
 
And then, at last, everything was ready for the big show, the
launcher roll-out to the pad. Traditionally, since the days of Yuri
Gagarin, this takes place at 7:30 in the morning, which means that
our whole team had to leave the hotel at 6:00 a.m in order to arrive
in time to witness the event.

The launcher integration hall is a brick stone building that was
built in the (very) early days of space exploration, and the harsh
weather conditions have left their traces on its faces. The launch
vehicle, all polished and new, is inside the building on a special
erector wagon which forms part of a train pulled by an old Diesel-
propelled locomotive. At exactly 7:30 the train sets into motion, and
the contrast couldn't be bigger: A high-tech scientific satellite
sitting atop one of the most reliable rockets in existence, emerges
from the giant doors of an old brick stone building.

The train moves at a comfortable walking speed, and all our team
follows it - like a group of tourists armed with cameras - along its
path up to the launch pad where it arrives just 30 minutes later.
Once we're there, the hydraulics of the erector wagon bring the
launcher up into vertical position, and shortly after that the rocket
with its precious Mars Express payload is finally installed on the
launch pad: Only 4 more days, and "we're (almost) ready to go".

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