Transit Day 6 – Rendezvous Day

Today is a significant milestone in the voyage to the launch site as the ACS rendezvoused with the Launch Platform last night at 23:40.  Captain Lars navigated the ACS to alongside the LP just off the starboard beam at 3.7 nautical miles.  Now if you are anything like me I always get confused between starboard and port so the LP is off of the right hand side of the ACS as you look forward and Port is that sweet after dinner drink but that is a different blog.  The ACS and LP will now transit together to the launch site with an expected arrival of 30 November early morning.

Launch Platform Comfortably Off the Starboard Beam

Launch Platform in the Morning Sun

 

The launch team goes into full gear on rendezvous day with the SEMCO Communications team led by Steen Nielsen setting up the communications links between the ACS and LP.  There will be more about the SEMCO team at a later date but these guys are top notch performers and a key aspect to our success. With the communications links established the Astrium spacecraft team was able to remotely perform health checks and spacecraft battery charging from the ACS.

Now that the ACS and LP are in close proximity it is time to spin up the helicopter team (no pun intended) and start training flights.  Evergreen Helicopters Inc. supplies us with top notch helicopter pilots who know how to get the job done.  Landing a helicopter on solid ground is hard enough imagine if the ground is moving up and down and side to side…these guys make it look easy.  The helicopter pilots led by Nick Clarno performed multiple training flights between the ACS and LP to get reacquainted with the helo pads on both vessels and to train with the marine crew that support helo operations.  It was a busy day for the pilots as they performed proficiency flights and a photo optics flight to capture some aerial photos and videos of the vessels in motion and were lucky enough to capture a pod of Dolphins playing between the two vessels.  A long day of flying but all objectives were met without issue.

Helicopter Returning from the Launch Platform in the Background

Helicopter Landing Gently on the Launch Platform

Helicopter Coming in for a Landing on The ACS

 

Dolphin Pod courtesy of Photo Optics Specialists Larry Trotter & Scott Crozier

Dolphin Pod courtesy of Photo Optics Specialists Larry Trotter & Scott Crozier

 

The rest of the launch crew spent the day preparing for the third and final rehearsal planned for tomorrow morning.  Making sure that all the documentation is in order, systems are ready and the remote sites are prepared to support. 

Both vessels are now in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) which is a band of clouds that circle the globe near the equator as the tradewinds from the northern hemisphere meet those from the southern.  It is also sometimes referred to as the “Doldrums” because of its erratic weather patterns in that it is either extremely calm or violent thunderstorms.  Either way it presents us with some interesting weather as you can see from the sunset photo below.

 

The Launch Platform about to be engulfed by the ITCZ