Up on the tower

The launch of the Mars Express mission should take place at the start of June, and members of the European team have been writing a diary for BBC News Online.

Michael Witting, one of the engineers working on the project, describes the latest steps the team is taking to make ready the spacecraft.

It is windy at the top

The spacecraft preparations in the main integration facilities have been progressing rapidly over the last couple of weeks.

We have successfully completed all our stand-alone testing and the stress on the team has been relieved over the past few days.

The solar arrays are on, the spacecraft has been neatly wrapped in its external thermal insulation foil (Multi Layer Insulation, or MLI) - it's now become a real beauty!

In the meantime, we've also been setting the scene out at the launch pad, where we will carry out the final preparations of the spacecraft once it sits on top of the rocket for the last five days prior to launch.

Driving to the launch pad from our hotel is an adventure in itself.

The pad is located about 50 kilometres away from the hotel and around 25 km from the main spacecraft integration facilities where we've been working so far, and the road conditions are far from what the average pampered Western European is used to.

As we approach the launch pad area, we pass the viewing site, from which most of the visitors will watch the launch.

It's only 1.5 km from where the rocket will lift off; it will be an awesome sight to see the rocket climbing up into the skies!

Cramped bunker

Most of us will then be in the Mars Express Control Centre, commonly called the "bunker". This is underground, less than 150 metres from the launch tower.

Cables must be routed up the tower

As we climb down the stairs into the control room, I understand where it got its name from: the space inside is very cramped and its thick concrete walls are like a World War II bomb shelter.

Time to start work now. We have to bring some electronic equipment and some cables to the top of the launch tower.

This will be the connection through which our computers in the bunker will talk to the spacecraft in the final hours, and we need to make sure that everything will work on the day.

Launch tower

A small elevator brings us up to the top of the tower, where everything seems to constantly rock.

As we get out of the lift, things get worse: we're on a platform in open air, some 30 m above the ground, and the handrails barely reach the level of my hips. We must have force four to five wind; it's cold, and I suddenly feel like I am on a sailing boat in a storm.

It takes us about five hours to install all our equipment up here and check all the connections to the bunker. A good end to difficult working day!

As the wind finally calms down, I remember one of the most emotional moments of my professional life. Three years ago, during the Cluster II launch campaign, we were working on the very same launch tower, when suddenly a distant rumble interrupted work and everybody looked up.

A Proton rocket carrying the first Russian module for the International Space Station had just taken off, some 50 km from us, and we could see it as a small point passing overhead.

We brought the Cluster II mission to a good end then, and we are all heading towards a common goal now: the successful launch of Mars Express!