Combined operations with the launcher have been restarted and the satellite has been encapsulated into the fairing. Since the end of August a thirty strong Astrium launch campaign team has been working on the MetOp launch campaign in Baikonur.

MetOp is the first in a series of three satellites built by the Astrium Satellites business unit for the European Space Agency (ESA) and Europe's weather satellite organisation EUMETSAT. As partners in this cooperative venture the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France and the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), provide payload instruments embarked on the satellite.

MetOp will become Europe's first polar-orbiting satellite dedicated to operational meteorology. It represents Europe's contribution to a new cooperative venture with the United States providing data that will be used to monitor our climate and improve weather forecasting.

The other two satellites in the series to be flown at 4.5-year intervals to ensure an operational service over at least 14 years have been completed except for the integration of a few instruments which have yet to be delivered by the customer. These spacecraft will remain in storage until just prior to their respective launch, when the final instruments will be installed.

MetOp embarks 11 different instruments, which are specifically designed to enable the satellite to achieve its principal mission objectives - meteorological observation and climate monitoring, whilst also supporting other missions including search and rescue and the monitoring of charged particles in the low Earth orbit environment.

Astrium is the satellite prime contractor, and has managed an industrial team of more than 50 contractors. Its is specifically responsible for the satellite system and the satellite service module which is based upon the platform developed in Toulouse for observation satellites and already successfully flown eleven time for various missions (SPOT, ERS, Envisat, Helios).

The MetOp payload module (PLM) is built by Astrium in Germany. It accommodates the instruments and the associated monitoring and control subsystems. The PLM is based on Envisat payload module which was also built by Astrium, Friedrichshafen.

In addition, Astrium in Germany is responsible for two main instruments on MetOp the "Advanced Scatterometer" (ASCAT) and the "GNSS Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding" (GRAS).

ASCAT is an active radar instrument which measures wind speed and direction over the open sea. It also provides data for ice and snow coverage as well as surface moisture. ASCAT measurements are independent of daylight and clouds which is particularly useful in the Polar Regions. ASCAT will scan two 500 kilometre wide corridors and can, therefore, provide almost global coverage within 24 hours.

GRAS, built under the responsibility of Astrium by Saab Ericsson, is a receiver for the signals from the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS). The signals are affected by the atmosphere of the Earth, and after processing provide atmospheric data such as temperature, water vapour and pressure. Furthermore GRAS provides navigation measurement data to support the precise orbit determination of the MetOp satellite.

The Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) was designed and built by Astrium in Portsmouth in the UK for EUMETSAT. MHS scans the Earth's atmosphere to measure emitted radiation in various spectra bands and from this can determine the water vapour content (clouds, precipitation, humidity) at various altitudes. The first MHS instrument was launched on 19 May 2005 aboard NOAA-N polar-orbiting satellite of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).and is already providing high quality data for global weather forecasters.

In addition, Astrium at Stevenage designed and built the service module mechanical system for the spacecraft including the structure and propulsion system.

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