“Three, two, one… Get out!” These are words that are hopelessly associated with images of a rocket rising through the air toward space. Behind that voice is the launch director, a position not limited to the famous account only … Regressive, but ultimately responsible for these space-bound giants turning on their engines to begin their journey. At the Space Center of Guiana (CSG), the launch operations base of the European Space Agency (ESA) in French Guiana, this task falls to Jean-Frédéric Alassa, flight engineer and current launch director of the Center National d’Etudes Spaces (CNES), the French space agency responsible for this important mission.
“I’m like an orchestra conductor: I have to make sure every instrument is well-organized for display,” says Alassa inside the CSG control center, called Jupiter 2, located in the middle of the Kuru Forest, at the foot of the Atlantic Ocean. There are only eight hours left before the launch of the largest and most powerful rocket Europe has ever built, Ariane 6, which will ascend with the new satellite of the Copernicus Earth observation programme, in which Europe has invested nearly 8 billion euros, in 2024. This means that the loss of precious cargo due to a launch failure, for which Alassa is ultimately responsible, could mean losses of hundreds or even billions of euros in just a few seconds.
“We check all the power, air conditioning systems, radars and telemetry systems… We are also in contact with the flight safety area, because at the launch base the French National Center for Space Studies is responsible for the safety of all the people who work here, the environment and all the areas, in case of any problem or failure of the launch device,” says Alassa, who has been working at the French National Center for Space Studies for 12 years, although he has been launch director since July 2023.
Third launch as manager
This is his third start as a manager. “It’s very exciting, because we’ve worked so hard to get to this moment, and it’s been a two-month launch campaign,” he said, referring to the entire team led by the 36-year-old Guyanese (tradition dictates that it is best for a local person to be responsible for commanding the take-off of rockets launched from the European spaceport). “For this position, in addition to years of experience, you must be very detail-oriented. You need time to learn everything, and know what each team does so you can coordinate them.
But their work doesn’t end with ground inspections in Kourou. It also supervises the tracking stations that will follow the launch once the rocket takes off and loses contact with French Guiana. Then comes the turn of Bermuda, then Gatineau (Canada), then moving to the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard and ending with a connection in Australia. “We need good communications with those stations, even redundant ones.”
You can see on the screens, next to the parameters, green signals indicating that everything is going as planned. “Right now, it’s all nominal,” he says. However, the situation may change with recent checks. “If we have any anomalies on the ground, for example, if the tracking station cannot do its job during the launch, then for us it is definitely red. Because we need all the telemetry of the launch pad, from liftoff to passivation and deorbit at that point. That is: until Sentinel-1D reaches its destination.
If something goes wrong
If some parameters are missing before take-off, he is the last person responsible for deciding whether the missile will fly or not. Because once the two Vulcan thrusters are turned on, Ariane 6 will take off without being able to turn back. At that moment he will hand over the baton of his mission. He added: “After take-off, the responsibility will be on the safety of the flight, and they will be the ones who make the decision to divert the route.” However, everything is controlled in advance. Alasa explains that an area called the “blue thumb” has been created that marks the path on Earth that the thrusters fall on after their two-minute separation from flight (which is too large to break apart due to atmospheric friction).
“We send out a notice to alert everyone that there will be a launch, and that we will follow a certain route at a certain time, to make sure there are no planes or ships on the way,” he explains. This blue thumb also includes places where other parts of the rocket could fall out if it veers off course and safety teams have to stop it. “In this case we blow it up,” he explains.
At 7 o’clock, it will be the turn of the main platform (the lower part of the rocket), which will leave the cowl alone (the tip of the rocket where Sentinel-1D is located) to begin its orbital journey and then unfold and launch the satellite, which happens exactly 33 minutes and 51 seconds after lift-off. “Everything is so fast.”
Eight hours later, at 6:02 p.m., Alassa’s voice begins the countdown. “Three, two, one… Get out!” It is heard on the live broadcast, as hundreds of people watch the CSG stand 16 kilometers from the Guyanese-led checkpoint. Ariane 6 and Sentinel-1D cruise through Korou’s clear sunset on its way to its new place in space, where it will remain for a decade if all goes according to plan. The first step, for which Alassa was responsible, was a complete success.
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