All lights are green for the launch of Europe's X-ray Space Observatory XMM on 10 December with the launch window opening at 14:32 GMT for the Ariane 5's first "commercial" launch.
The ESA Director of Science Roger-Maurice Bonnet has given the green light to Robert Laine, the XMM Project Manager, to proceed to the next phase in preparing XMM for launch. This means that the XMM spacecraft is confirmed for a launch on 10 December 1999.
Caption right: XMM being prepared for hydrazine loading. In the foreground the (transfert) tank containing the hydrazine.
M. Lain¿, currently in French Guiana overseeing the final operations before launch, is delighted. "All actions on the flight hardware of our spacecraft are closed, the science instruments are in flight configuration, everything is on schedule for the big day."
The next milestones in the satellite campaign will be the fuelling of the spacecraft, due to start on Monday 15th November, followed on the 19th by the arrival of the Ariane 504 launcher in the Final Assembly building, where the satellite is being prepared.
