We recently made some good progress towards the Vega SSMS flight, as we are performing functional tests of the ISISPACE built deployment sequencers at AVIO premises. The two sequencers will be responsible for managing the timed deployment signals and deployment telemetry gathering for all the CubeSats on board the Vega’s Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) Proof Of Concept flight (POC flight).
As the sequencers are part of Vega’s avionics, they need to be tested in the loop with all of Vega’s systems. A set of test runs were performed and the activation of the systems, as well as the telemetry reception, worked as expected. The two engineering model sequencer units will remain in Colleferro, Italy, for further testing to support the ongoing launch campaign.
In parallel, the two flight model sequencers – built for Arianespace – are currently ready for their final functional acceptance test. Soon they will be shipped to be placed on the Hexa structure, which will go on top of the AVUM upper stage by our team at the integration facilities in the Czech Republic. Afterwards, the final stop before space is Guiana Space Center (GSC), in Kourou, where the last functional tests will be accomplished in preparation of the SSMS POC flight. We are proud to be part of this milestone mission!
