To meet more than the 20-year operational life of the mission, the full MTG system comprises six satellites, four MTG-I and two sounding satellites, MTG-S.

The two MTG-I satellites will operate in tandem – one scanning the full Earth disc, including Europe and Africa, every 10 minutes, while the other will provide a local area coverage, for example covering only Europe, with a faster repeat cycle.

The single MTG-S satellite will also provide local-area coverage over selected parts of Earth, with a repeat cycle of typically five minutes.

At the moment, it’s all steam ahead to get the first of these satellites, MTG-I1, into orbit.

The recent system validation tests took two weeks of double shift work at the Telespazio and Eumetsat control centres. The respective centres ran key operational procedures both for routine satellite commanding and contingency recoveries to demonstrate the compatibility of the control centres with the MTG-I1 satellite.

Over 350 different procedures were exercised during the campaign, for which review and testing against the complex MTG-I satellite simulator has been on-going since early in the year.

Ultimately, thanks to the close cooperation between all parties – including ESA, Eumetsat, Telespazio and the MTG industrial support team from Thales, OHB and Leonardo – the overall system validation test campaign has been successfully completed on time.

This means that the MTG-I1 satellite can be released for the last few tests prior to shipment to the launch site in French Guiana.