The new control room for satellite orbital insertion has been inaugurated at the Telespazio’s Fucino Space Centre

Fucino  13 December 2019

Leonardo, through its subsidiary Telespazio, today inaugurated the new LEOP (Launch and Early Orbit Phase) control room at the Fucino Space Centre in Abruzzo, the technological core for the sensitive satellite orbital insertion and testing the activities.

The ceremony was attended by the Undersecretary of State of the Prime Minister's Office with delegation for Space, Riccardo Fraccaro, the Military Adviser of the Presidency of the Council, Admiral Carlo Massagli , the President of the Italian Space Agency, Giorgio Saccoccia, the CEO of Leonardo, Alessandro Profumo, and the Coordinator of Leonardo Space Activities and CEO of Telespazio, Luigi Pasquali.

"The continuous investment in technologies, capabilities and infrastructures to guarantee safe and effective space operations, in view of the strong growth of the sector, is an indispensable factor to consolidate the leadership of Leonardo in satellite services - declared the CEO of Leonardo, Alessandro Profumo. Leonardo - he added - through Telespazio, is the only private operator in Europe capable of managing the LEOP stage of a satellite mission, but not only: we are among the most innovative companies in the marketing of services for institutions, businesses and citizens, from navigation to geo-information, to the security of territories and infrastructures ".

The order of complexity that is managed during a LEOP activity includes up to fifty thousand telemetric parameters indicating the satellite status, with a required performance during this type of operation very close to "zero error tolerance".

Luigi Pasquali, Coordinator of Leonardo Space Activities, added “Since 1996 to present, Telespazio has successfully carried out over 50 operations to put into orbit some of the most important international satellites, many of them with Leonardo technologies on board. From Fucino, we are supervising the preparatory activities to put into orbit and control the first satellite of the COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation Italian constellation, which will be launched on December 17th. The new room will also represent a strategic asset for electric propulsion LEOPs, which will become increasingly important in the coming years ".

The role of Leonardo in COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation is not limited to the orbital insertion of the satellite. The company, in fact, also provides stellar attitude sensors for correct positioning in space, while the power required for satellite and instrument operation is guaranteed by eight advanced photovoltaic panels. Multiple control and distribution units will transform sunlight into power and will manage it, maximising its efficiency to power on-board systems and subsystems. After COSMO-SkyMed, the "Piero Fanti" Centre will supervise the launch of the EUMETSAT European meteorological satellites in 2021.

The "Piero Fanti" Fucino Space Centre is the most important teleport in the world for civil use, extending over an area of 370,000 sq.m. and with 170 antennas. Besides the LEOP room, the centre has rooms dedicated to controlling the network of ground stations and flight dynamics, equally important activities in the management of a satellite mission. All facilities are manned 24 hours a day and can simultaneously handle multiple space missions.

 

 

What is a LEOP

The LEOP (Launch and Early Orbit Phase) is one of the most critical stages of a satellite mission and includes all the activities carried out by the control centre, from the moment of satellite separation from the carrier up to its positioning in the final orbit. For a typical geostationary mission, this requires a series of orbital transfers, in which propellant consumption is typically close to half the satellite mass. The required performance during this type of operations is very close to "zero error tolerance", since the duration of the mission operational life depends on the residual fuel still on-board the satellite at the end of the LEOP.

The major criticality of LEOP operations depends on the fact that a technologically complex object such as the satellite is operated in flight for the first time after the launch phase, which involves considerable environmental stress, both mechanical and thermal. It is therefore essential to be able to promptly intervene with any actions required to safeguard the mission.

For geostationary satellites (whose orbit is 36 thousand kilometres above the Earth), a LEOP lasts 10 days on the average, but its preparation can even last several years. This time is necessary to allow highly specialized personnel to develop all the stages, times and procedures required to transfer the satellite from the release orbit to the final one.

Current satellites are highly complex systems and their management requires dedicated teams, 24 hours a day, each one of them specialized for a specific subsystem. During a LEOP it is necessary to monitor and interpret approximately fifty thousand telemetric parameters reporting the satellite status.

 

The most important stages characterising a LEOP phase are:

1.      first telemetry acquisition through the antennas of the Ground Station network after launcher separation;

2.      initialization and configuration of the propulsion system;

3.      positioning towards the sun and unfolding of solar panels to allow the supply and recharge of internal batteries;

4.      the various (3 to 5) Apogee manoeuvres to pass from the release orbit, highly elliptical and inclined with respect to the  Equator, to the geostationary one at an altitude of 42,168 km from the centre of the Earth, which has the characteristic  of having the same period of the Earth revolution (24 hours);

5.      reaching the target longitude and entering the nominal mode, with the communications antennas facing the ground,   the panels fully open and all the subsystems active.

Other News & Stories

11.03.2024
The English edition of "Space In our Hands" presented by Telespazio and the Bocconi SEE Lab

The English edition of Space In our Hands, published by Mimesis International, was presented in Milan on 7 March. The book, already available in Italian in a version published by Hoepli, is the result of a project of Telespazio and of the SEE Lab (the Space Economy Evolution Lab of the SDA School of Management) and is dedicated to sustainability, an increasingly hot topic both on Earth and in space.

07.03.2024
Telespazio Germany and constellr: A cooperation to improve our planet’s health

Telespazio Germany and constellr have signed an agreement for the provision of Telespazio’s ground segment software solution, EASE-Rise, to operate constellr’s first satellite. The upcoming launch, scheduled for later this year, aims to provide global land surface temperature (LST) imagery, contributing to the fight against climate change.

27.02.2024
Telespazio is taking part in “Drones and advanced air mobility: flying into the future, between challenges and opportunities”

Next Wednesday, 28 February, Telespazio will be among the participants in the meeting “Drones and advanced air mobility: flying into the future, between challenges and opportunities”, organised by the Drones and Advanced Air Mobility Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, which Telespazio has been a partner of since 2021.

15.02.2024
The ASI AGILE satellite has re-entered the atmosphere, after being managed in orbit for 17 years by Telespazio

After 17 years of activity, AGILE (Astrorivelatore Gamma a Immagini LEggero, Light Imager for Gamma-ray Astrophysics), the scientific satellite of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), has re-entered the atmosphere. The “passivation” of the satellite, as required by international standards, was correctly carried out on 18 January by the Telespazio technicians in the Fucino Space Centre.

11.03.2024
The English edition of "Space In our Hands" presented by Telespazio and the Bocconi SEE Lab

The English edition of Space In our Hands, published by Mimesis International, was presented in Milan on 7 March. The book, already available in Italian in a version published by Hoepli, is the result of a project of Telespazio and of the SEE Lab (the Space Economy Evolution Lab of the SDA School of Management) and is dedicated to sustainability, an increasingly hot topic both on Earth and in space.

07.03.2024
Telespazio Germany and constellr: A cooperation to improve our planet’s health

Telespazio Germany and constellr have signed an agreement for the provision of Telespazio’s ground segment software solution, EASE-Rise, to operate constellr’s first satellite. The upcoming launch, scheduled for later this year, aims to provide global land surface temperature (LST) imagery, contributing to the fight against climate change.

27.02.2024
Telespazio is taking part in “Drones and advanced air mobility: flying into the future, between challenges and opportunities”

Next Wednesday, 28 February, Telespazio will be among the participants in the meeting “Drones and advanced air mobility: flying into the future, between challenges and opportunities”, organised by the Drones and Advanced Air Mobility Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano, which Telespazio has been a partner of since 2021.

15.02.2024
The ASI AGILE satellite has re-entered the atmosphere, after being managed in orbit for 17 years by Telespazio

After 17 years of activity, AGILE (Astrorivelatore Gamma a Immagini LEggero, Light Imager for Gamma-ray Astrophysics), the scientific satellite of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), has re-entered the atmosphere. The “passivation” of the satellite, as required by international standards, was correctly carried out on 18 January by the Telespazio technicians in the Fucino Space Centre.