The payload module of the ESA’s latest meteorological satellite, MetOp-B, has completed vacuum tests.

The module, which contains all of the sensitive meteorological instruments, had been placed within ESA’s large space simulator (LSS) to recreate space conditions on Earth.

MetOp-B is the second in a series of three European meteorological operational satellites to serve as the space segment of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites’ EUMETSAT polar system (EPS).

MetOp project controller Rob Oremus said that by launching a new satellite every five to six years, the system could provide continuous data for temperature, humidity, cloud cover and gases in the atmosphere.

After final checks the module will be temporarily stored in preparation for the final precise calibration of some European and American instruments, and be readied for launch on a Soyuz rocket in 2012.

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