Arianespace Successfully Launches the Sentinel-2B Satellite
Arianespace has successfully launched the Sentinel-2B satellite for the European Commission within the scope of a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA).
The launch took place on Monday, March 6, at 10:49 p.m. local time from the Guiana Space Center (CSG), Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
This was the third launch of the year for Arianespace and the first in 2017 with the Vega light launcher. It also marked the ninth successful launch in a row for Vega, which made its debut at the Guiana Space Center in 2012.
With this latest successful launch, Arianespace once again demonstrates its commitment to sustainable development, while also carrying out its mission of guaranteeing European independent access to space.
Arianespace at the service of sustainable development with the European Copernicus program
Following the successful launches of Sentinel-1A, Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-1B, today’s mission with Sentinel-2B marks the fourth satellite in the European Commission’s Copernicus Earth observation program to be orbited by Arianespace from the Guiana Space Center.
The Sentinel-2B Earth observation satellite mainly focuses on monitoring land masses and coastal zones around the world. It will be positioned in an orbit opposite that of Sentinel-2A to ensure optimum coverage and data delivery. The pair of Sentinel-2 satellites will cover the Earth’s entire surface in five days. This high frequency means they will capture brand-new views of the Earth, driving considerable progress in monitoring and predicting changes in vegetation and aquatic pollution.
Sentinel-2B combines a multispectral, wide-swath, very-high-resolution optical imaging instrument with a dedicated platform developed by Airbus, a long-standing partner to Arianespace. It is the 117th Airbus-built satellite to be launched by Arianespace. There are 16 more satellites from this manufacturer in Arianespace’s order book, not counting the OneWeb constellation.
Sentinel-2B is the 61st Earth observation satellite to be launched by Arianespace. These types of satellites represents 10% of all spacecraft launched by Arianespace since being founded, and 23% of its current order backlog (in number of satellites).
