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Metop-C deployment and start of three-satellite operations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

P.L. Righetti Open the ORCID record for P.L. Righetti [Opens in a new window] ,
J.M. de Juana Gamo  and
F. Sancho
P.L. Righetti*
Affiliation:
Flight Operations Division, EUMETSAT, Eumetsat Allee 1, Darmstadt, 64295, Germany
J.M. de Juana Gamo
Affiliation:
Flight Operations Division, EUMETSAT, Eumetsat Allee 1, Darmstadt, 64295, Germany
F. Sancho
Affiliation:
Flight Operations Division, EUMETSAT, Eumetsat Allee 1, Darmstadt, 64295, Germany
*
pierluigi.righetti@eumetsat.int
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Abstract

Metop is the space segment of the EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS), which provides real-time data to several European meteorological services as well as to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and other international agencies. The third Metop satellite, Metop-C, was launched on 7 November 2018 and shall enter in operations in few months, once the on-going commissioning of the meteorological products is completed. Each Metop satellite was designed to operate at least five years. A sequential deployment of the satellites was foreseen to achieve the target mission duration of 15 years, replacing an old one at end of life with a newer one; thanks to the excellent performances of the launchers and of the platform itself, and to continuous improvements to the fuel management, it was possible to extend the operational life of each satellite by a factor of three, still maintaining enough fuel to perform safe de-orbiting operations (foreseen for Metop-A, launched in 2006, at the end of 2021). This provided the opportunity to develop in 2012 (after Metop-B launch) dual-satellite products, which now, with the arrival of Metop-C, can evolve to tri-satellite; several decisions, concerning the selection of launch date and time as well as commissioning and operational locations, had to be been taken to achieve the target configuration; the analyses leading to these decisions are discussed here.

Keywords

mission executionlaunch and early operations phase
Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 124 , Issue 1276 , June 2020 , pp. 902 - 916
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal Aeronautical Society

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Footnotes

A version of this paper was first presented at the 18th Australian International Aerospace Congress in February 2019.

References

REFERENCES

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