EarthCARE/CPR Project Member Blog
2024.5.29 (ESOC Field Report)
The EarthCARE satellite was launched safely by a Falcon 9 rocket, and the solar panels were deployed as scheduled, so we can rest assured that the satellite itself is safe. Now it's time for CPR!
During the three critical days of operation after launch, the CPR's main reflector (MREF), which has a diameter of 2.5m, will be deployed 27 hours later. First, the heaters in the antenna deployment mechanism were switched on to begin a series of steps to bring the system to the optimum temperature for deployment. The temperature rose smoothly and reached near room temperature, and preparations were complete. Approximately one hour before deployment began, the command for MREF deployment was sent to the satellite from the Kiruna ground station in Sweden.
Now, it's time to deploy the MREF. The MREF is folded and held in place at launch, but is deployed in orbit using a pyrotechnic retention and release mechanism that explodes explosives to release it. The deployment sequence began once communication was established with the Troll ground station in Antarctica. First, the safety lock that prevents inadvertent command execution was released, so we got off to a good start. We were glued to the monitor screen of the operations console. Two of four telemetry signals indicated the start of deployment (yes, here we go!). We watched with bated breath, but the remaining two telemetry signals indicating completion of deployment never arrived. It felt like about a minute and a half had passed, when we received telemetry indicating that the deployment was complete (Yay!). The deployment time was about 43 seconds on my watch. It's almost exactly as it turned out in the ground tests.
Afterwards, I shook hands and hugged everyone on the operations team, and the scene I had imagined became a reality. We also received congratulations from ESA/JAXA staff who were watching warmly through the glass of the operations room. Up until that point, we had been conducting ground tests and operational training, but on that day I really realized that it had all been leading up to this moment.
