New Dawn Satellite Testing Begins at Guiana Space Center

The Intelsat New Dawn satellite left Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., at 9 pm EST on Monday, 28 February, aboard Antonov, the largest transport aircraft in the world. After a six-hour flight, the airplane arrived at Rochambeau airport in Cayenne, French Guiana at 5 am local time on Tuesday, 1 March.

After settling down in the tarmac, the Antonov dramatically flipped up its nose, revealing the shipping container with Intelsat New Dawn inside. A rail system slid the shipping container out of the Antonov and a specially-designed crane loaded it onto a flat bed truck. The loading went smoothly and the spacecraft was ready to be transported to the Guiana Space Center (CSG) around 9 am. Darkness and occasional heavy rain made taking photos and travel a real challenge. The journey of approximately 60 miles took about 2 hours.

The shipping container arrived at building S5 of CSG around 11 am and was moved to the air lock. The spacecraft was removed from the shipping container and lifted to the integration dolly. Orbital began testing at the launch site on Tuesday, 1 March. The Launch Integrated Systems Test (LIST) was conducted to check the health of the spacecraft, beginning with tests on the command and data handling subsystem (C & DH 01).