Telespazio VEGA Deutschland supports the Metop-C mission

Darmstadt, Germany  07 November 2018

A full service ranging from pre-launch activities through to routine operations

The Metop-C satellite was successfully launched from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana on 7 November 2018. Prior to this, our Telespazio VEGA Deutschland teams have been involved in the crucial pre-launch preparations for the latest addition to EUMETSAT’s weather satellites, played a vital role in the launch and will continue with supporting its clients in the operational phases.

To date, our teams have been supporting EUMETSAT in a number of key areas, including Operations Preparation, System Verification & Validation Testing, and Critical Design Reviews – mandatory steps to ensure that the teams and systems on ground are functioning nominally.

After the successful launch of the satellite, the subsequent early orbit operations are performed by the European Space Agency (ESA) from the Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt. A number of Telespazio VEGA Deutschland employees support the ESA team this phase with their expert services. These include operations engineering, ground systems operations and ground stations engineering. 

After 72 hours, once the spacecraft has passed most of the required in-flight checks, control and responsibility for the mission will then pass from ESOC to EUMETSAT’s control centre, also in Darmstadt. Telespazio VEGA Deutschland will support its client EUMETSAT in carrying out further extensive testing and preparation, to gradually bring all Metop-C instruments into operational mode. Following the calibration of all instruments, the company’s support to routine operations will commence and with it the distribution of Metop-C data products for users around the globe.

About Metop-C

The Metop-C, a polar-orbiting weather satellite, will be launched from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana on the 7th of November 2018 at 1:47 am CET. It is the third and final satellite in the EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS) to be launched. Its siblings, Metop-A and -B were launched in 2006 and 2012 respectively and continue to make a significant impact on the accuracy of weather forecasts. They also help contribute to our understanding of the Earth’s climate.

More information on Metop-C is available on the EUMETSAT Website.

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