{"id":16253,"date":"2015-06-23T19:04:18","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T11:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/new-satellite-joins-europes-growing-earth-observing-network\/"},"modified":"2015-06-23T19:04:18","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T11:04:18","slug":"new-satellite-joins-europes-growing-earth-observing-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/new-satellite-joins-europes-growing-earth-observing-network\/","title":{"rendered":"New satellite joins Europe\u2019s growing Earth observing network"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Vega rocket with Sentinel 2A blasted off at 0151:58 GMT Tuesday (9:51:58 p.m. EDT Monday) from Kourou, French Guiana. Credit: ESA\u2013M. Pedoussaut, 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new satellite to monitor crops, pollution and the growth of cities blasted off Monday from a tropical spaceport in French Guiana, adding another piece to Europe\u2019s multibillion-dollar fleet of spacecraft tasked to track Earth\u2019s ever-changing environment.<\/p>\n

The Sentinel 2A satellite, the second of more than a dozen European environmental sentinels slated to launch in the coming years, lifted off at 0151:58 GMT Tuesday (9:51:58 p.m. EDT Monday) from the Guiana Space Center on the northern coast of South America.<\/p>\n

Riding a 10-story solid-fueled Vega launcher, the 2,500-pound craft fired into the night sky over the jungle space base, heading north for a polar orbit designed to carry the satellite over the entire planet.<\/p>\n

The Vega rocket\u2019s three Italian-made solid rocket motors boosted the satellite for nearly seven minutes, then a Ukrainian fourth stage burning hypergolic hydrazine fuel ignited two times to inject Sentinel 2A into a nearly circular orbit about 488 miles \u2014 786 kilometers \u2014 above Earth at an inclination of 98.5 degrees.<\/p>\n

Flying above a ground station in Perth, Australia, the launcher\u2019s upper stage released Sentinel 2A about 55 minutes after liftoff, and pre-programmed commands aboard the spacecraft started procedures to extend the satellite\u2019s power-generating solar panel and stabilize its pointing to ensure the solar cells could receive sunlight.<\/p>\n

The satellite\u2019s passage over a communications antenna in Antarctica a few minutes later confirmed Sentinel 2A weathered Monday night\u2019s launch in good condition.<\/p>\n

The European Space Agency and Arianespace, which conducted the launch, declared the mission a complete success.<\/p>\n

Sentinel 2A\u2019s launch was the fifth flight of the Vega rocket, an Italian-led program with the backing of ESA tailored to loft small satellites into low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of the Sentinel 2A satellite. Credit: ESA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before 2015, the Vega rocket only launched once per year. But Monday\u2019s flight was the second Vega launch of the year, and one more mission is scheduled for November to send up ESA\u2019s LISA Pathfinder probe to measure gravitational waves.<\/p>\n

Arianespace aims for at least three Vega launches annually over the next few years. Together with Arianespace\u2019s larger Ariane 5 and Soyuz boosters, the company plans up to seven more launches before the end of 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cVega is keeping up with its promises, and the most demanding customers are not mistaking them: Vega\u2019s backlog has now reached 10 launches, six of them being for the benefit of export customers in the field of Earth observation,\u201d said Stephane Israel, Arianespace\u2019s chairman and CEO. \u201cSo, let me thank again our prime contractor, ELV, a company jointly owned by Avio and the Italian Space Agency, ASI, for delivering such a fine product \u2014 symbol of the Italian excellence in the field of launch vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sentinel 2A is kicking off a seven-year mission, joining the European Union\u2019s Copernicus environmental surveillance network to measure changes to Earth\u2019s land masses, oceans and atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a mission,\u201d said Volker Liebig, head of ESA\u2019s Earth observation programs. \u201cWe have a Sentinel 2 mission. We have two Sentinels now in orbit, and this is due to many who have cooperated extremely well.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESA manages the satellites and launches for the Copernicus program on behalf of the European Commission, the EU\u2019s executive body.<\/p>\n

The first Copernicus satellite \u2014 named Sentinel 1A \u2014 went up in April 2014. The Sentinel 1 series carry radars, while the Sentinel 2 satellites host powerful color cameras to image forests, crops, cities and rivers.<\/p>\n

\u201cSentinel 2A is the fruit of European technological and industrial excellence,\u201d said Elzbieta Bienkowska, European Commissioner for the internal market, industry, entrepreneurship and SMEs. \u201cIt will deliver data that are needed to provide precise and reliable information about our environment and European citizens\u2019 security.\u201d<\/p>\n

An identical spacecraft is set for launch in September 2016. With two Sentinel 2 platforms in orbit, users will be able to glimpse the same location on Earth every five days.<\/p>\n

Built by Airbus Defense and Space, Sentinel 2A could last longer than its seven-year design life. It carries enough fuel to operate for 12 years, according to Francois Spoto, ESA\u2019s Sentinel 2 program manager.<\/p>\n

The first picture from Sentinel 2A\u2019s camera should be transmitted to Earth within a week of launch, Spoto said, but it will take three months to finish calibrating the instrument and declare the satellite fully operational.<\/p>\n

Later Sentinel missions will focus on oceanography and the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an Earth observation system that\u2019s falling into place that has no equivalent on the planet,\u201d said Philippe Brunet, director for space policy and head of the Copernicus program at the European Commission. \u201cAn Earth observation system for a political organization like the commission \u2014 what does that mean? This is for decision support, also for crisis management, (and) it\u2019s an aid for citizens. That means more growth. That also means more jobs, and above all, it\u2019s a bet on the future because increasingly we\u2019re going to depend on space.\u201d<\/p>\n

European governments plan to spend up to $10 billion on the Copernicus network through 2020, making it the largest civilian-run Earth observation program in the world and Europe\u2019s most expensive space program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an operational spacecraft,\u201d said Francois Spoto, ESA\u2019s Sentinel 2 program manager, in an interview before the launch. \u201cThis is not considered a scientific spacecraft, even though science will benefit from the mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sentinel 2A\u2019s camera can see in 13 colors and paints a swath 180 miles (290 kilometers) wide as the satellite speeds around Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has 13 spectral channels to analyze 13 different nuances of colors when taking an image of Earth, and a spatial resolution which may seem relatively modest \u2014 10 meters (33 feet) in the current case \u2014 is actually quite high given the number of channels and the width of the swath of the imagery,\u201d Spoto said.<\/p>\n

The color imagery will beam back to Earth via a laser link with a communications terminal on a satellite in geostationary orbit.<\/p>\n

The satellite continues observations made by France\u2019s Spot series of Earth imaging spacecraft and the U.S. Landsat missions.<\/p>\n

Europe will freely distribute data from the Copernicus satellites, a key tenet of the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cConstellations of satellites monitoring the Earth with radar systems, looking at the atmosphere, looking at the oceans, looking at the land change, they will assure Europe with the data it needs at least for the next 20 years, and combined with the meteorological systems, this is a very powerful and essential tool,\u201d said Mark Doherty, head of ESA\u2019s Earth observation exploitation development division and chief of the agency\u2019s initiative for climate change.<\/p>\n

The next Arianespace launch is scheduled for July 8, when an Ariane 5 rocket will lift off with the Brazilian Star One C4 communications satellite and MSG 4, a weather observatory for Europe.<\/p>\n

European officials plan the next Copernicus program launch later this year, when Sentinel 3A will go up on a Russian Rockot booster to extend the network\u2019s reach into ocean observations.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Vega rocket with Sentinel 2A blasted off at 0151:58 GMT Tuesday (9:51:58 p.m. EDT Monday) from Kourou, French Guiana. Credit: ESA\u2013M. Pedoussaut, 2015 A new satellite to monitor crops, pollution and the growth of cities blasted off Monday from a tropical spaceport in French Guiana, adding another piece to Europe\u2019s multibillion-dollar fleet of spacecraft […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1657,498,1805,159,831,1773,4020,1311],"class_list":["post-16253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-airbus-defense-and-space","tag-arianespace","tag-copernicus","tag-earth-observation","tag-european-space-agency","tag-guiana-space-center","tag-sentinel-2a","tag-vega"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}