16 October
Separation set for 14:42 GMT (16:42 CEST) – live video from ESOC starting at 16:30 CEST
15:50 CEST: Both Schiaparelli and ExoMars/TGO are in good shape! The A-team shift of the mission control team are now on console in Main Control Room at ESOC. ExoMars/TGO has completed its slew into separation attitude/orientation. Communication now provided by ESA's 35m deep-space tracking station at New Norcia, Australia. Separation on track for 16:42 CEST.
13:25 CEST: The separation timeline has started! Teams at ESOC are extremely busy monitoring the sequence of events scheduled for today's separation, expected at 16:42 CEST. Both the ExoMars/TGO orbiter and the Schiaparelli lander module are in great shape. The lander has been switched on and engineers monitoring telemetry - on-board status information - report that temperatures on Schiaparelli are nominal. ExoMars/TGO has already begun slewing - rotating in space - into the correct attitude for separation. Just prior to separation, at 16:31 CEST, mission controllers expect to lose the full data link with TGO, and then will follow progress by monitoring the basic unmodulated carrier signal only, as a sort of beacon. We may also see signals received via the GMRT radio telescope in Pune, India, although this is strictly an experiment and may not function as planned. One-way signal time today is 9 mins and 34 secs.
10:10 CEST: Today, Schiaparelli, still attached to ExoMars/TGO, is switched on, and its systems checked out one final time. Experts from Thales Alenia Space (Italy) working at ESOC will verify the final set of time-tagged commands, which have been uploaded via TGO and stored on board Schiaparelli so that it can function more or less autonomously throughout its mission. TGO will eject Schiaparelli at 16:42 CEST, dispatching it on a three-day coast and a six-minute descent to the surface. Ground station coverage will be provided by NASA's giant 70m Deep Space Network (DSN) ground stations at Canberra, Australia, and Madrid, Spain, which will listen for the spacecraft's signals as the Schiaparelli module separates. It will be pushed away from TGO at just 30 cm/second, but this tiny push can be detected by the DSN stations.
15 October
At ESOC today: The ExoMars/TGO mission control team begins working from the large, general-purpose Main Control Room as of 02:00CEST. Activities include spacecraft health and status check-outs and ground station tracking passes to support the highly accurate 'delta DOR' navigation technique. By this evening, all files and configuration settings needed to support separation will be finalised. Separation is set for 14:42 GMT (16:42 CEST) spacecraft time tomorrow.
For separation, releasing a 577-kg lander will make TGO wobble. This could affect the very sensitive antenna pointing needed to ensure a full data link, so mission controllers will monitor progress only via the basic radio carrier signal, with the signal acting like a beacon. The separation wobble will be visible in the Doppler data associated with the carrier signal. With a one-way signal time of about 9 min and 45 secs, mission controllers will see a first indication of progress around 16:52 CEST. A full confirmation will come later (around 17:15 CEST) once controllers re-establish the full data link with the spacecraft.
14 October
18:35 CEST: Our coverage of separation on Sunday, 16 October, set for 14:42 GMT (16:42 CEST) spacecraft time, will begin a bit earlier than previously announced. You can watch a live webstream from ESA's mission control centre, Darmstadt, Germany, starting at 16:30 CEST.
