The third satellite developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) carrying four Earth-observing instruments was launched on 16th February, 2016. The satellite has the ability to cover Europe’s Copernicus environment programme. The first signal from Sentinel-3A was received after 92 minutes by the Kiruna station in Sweden. Telemetry

links and attitude control were then established by controllers at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, allowing them to monitor the condition of the satellite. In Volker Liebig’s (ESA’s Earth Observation Programmes Director) words, “This is the third of the Sentinel satellites launched in the less than two years – and it is certainly a special moment. It also marks a new era for the Copernicus Services, with Sentinel-3 providing a whole range of new data with unprecedented coverage of the oceans.” The launch of Sentinel-3B, Sentinel-3A’s twin, is scheduled for next year. Read full story here