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Mirror Being Loaded into the Beluga Transport
The Herschel primary mirror blank, mounted in its transport container, is loaded onto an Airbus A300-600ST "Beluga" ready for a flight to Finland, where the optical surface will be polished. The Beluga's 7.4 m diameter fuselage and 5.4 m wide load floor easily accomodate the mirror, which is too wide for normal transport aircraft.
Image Details
- Date
- July 6, 2004
- ID
- nhsc2004-002a
- Type
- Photograph
- Credit
- ESA / EADS Astrium