CNES PRESS RELEASE

Paris, 18 November 2004

A FIRST FOR CNES’ SATELLITE POSITIONING TEAMS

Immediately after the forthcoming Ariane 5 G+ launch scheduled on 10 December, CNES will be required to position six satellites almost simultaneously in an unprecedented, ultra-precise orbital dance choreographed by operations teams.

The teams’ task is to position Helios 2A with respect to Helios 1A, Parasol in the A-train, and the Essaim formation.

CNES’s network operations centre will be charged with coordinating 17 stations and associated communications systems across the globe to link up the satellites with their control centres. Stations operated by partners such as the Canadian Space Agency, China satellite Launch and Tracking Control (CLTC), ESA and the Swedish Space Corporation—which manages the Prioranet network—will be complementing CNES’s station network in a truly international cooperation effort.

CNES’s operational orbit determination centre (CCO) will determine the orbit and antenna pointing parameters to track each satellite.

Three control centres—one for Helios 2A and Helios 1A, one for Parasol and Demeter, and one for the four Essaim microsatellites—will be in action performing dedicated operations for each satellite. They will be assisted by three control rooms, where project managers, experts and senior officials from CNES, Astrium and the French defence procurement agency DGA will be watching operations.

Such exceptional operations call for exceptional measures, with more than 200 people—from project and operations engineers to satellite and ground segment specialists and orbit determination experts—involved in a unique display of the Toulouse Space Centre’s capabilities and expertise.

Sandra LALY
Phone: +33 (0)1 44 76 77 32
Mobile: +33(0)6 08 48 39 31