Insight | Behind the scenes at Baikonur – part 3

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Behind the scenes at Baikonur – part 3

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In a series of blog posts, Franco Carnevale, Inmarsat VP of Satellites and Launches, takes us on a journey behind the scenes at the International Launch Station in Kazakhstan as the mission teams prepare to launch the third satellite in our Global Xpress network – Inmarsat-5 F3 – into geosynchronous orbit 35,786 km (22,236 miles) above Earth on Friday 28 August at 12:44 BST.

At an impressive height of nearly 60m – as tall as a 15-storey building – the third Global Xpress satellite is now fully integrated with the launch vehicle.

All pneumatic, hydraulic and electrical checks of the integrated launch vehicle have been completed successfully and it is now nearly ready to start its slow train ride to its assigned Baikonur launch pad.

Proton, like all Russian vehicles, is integrated and mated with the satellite horizontally, which makes ground handling with relatively conventional systems, like tracks and rail quite simple.

Follow the journey in the images below.

About the author


Franco Carnevale, Inmarsat Vice President Satellites and Launch Vehicles, is responsible for the design, engineering, quality and mission assurance of the Inmarsat-5 constellation, their integration to launch vehicles and deployment in orbit. His past responsibilities have included managing the Alphasat programme, a joint venture between Inmarsat and the European Space Agency. His previous position was Director of the Inmarsat-4 Space Segment. In this role he played a crucial part in the spacecraft and launch vehicle specification, contractor selection, contract negotiations, and in programme management. He was in charge of the deployment in orbit of all three Inmarsat-4 satellites. Franco is involved with the Inmarsat resident teams at the contractor facilities in Los Angeles and Toulouse and has himself been based in both cities for the critical phases of the projects.

Prior to the Inmarsat-4 programme, Franco was Manager, Inmarsat-3 Satellite Systems Engineering, responsible for the engineering of the bus electrical systems and the satellite system integration at the Lockheed Martin satellite manufacturing facilities in Princeton, USA.  Before that he served as Manager, Inmarsat-2 Bus Electrical Systems Engineering at the manufacturer, BAe Systems in Stevenage.  Prior to joining Inmarsat in 1986, Franco held design, development, integration and test responsibilities for space avionics at Laben-Milan and BAe Systems for the Olympus programme.

He holds BSc and MSc degrees in physics from the University La Sapienza in Rome.