Sentinel-2C ready for transatlantic voyage and farewell launch to Vega

TAMPA, Fla. — Sentinel-2C is ready to be shipped from Germany on a two-week journey across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana, where Europe’s latest Earth science satellite is scheduled to launch on the final flight of the original version of the Vega rocket.

Manufacturer Airbus announced on July 3 that it had loaded the satellite onto Canopée, a sail-powered cargo ship specially designed to transport components of the European Ariane 6 rocket.

Like its Airbus-built predecessors, Sentinel-2A and -2B, launched in 2015 and 2017 respectively, the Sentinel-2C payload is designed to generate optical images from the visible to the shortwave infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Each Sentinel-2 satellite collects 1.5 terabytes of data per day after onboard compression, supporting applications ranging from land use tracking to environmental monitoring.

Airbus said the 1,100-kilogram Sentinel-2C satellite would provide continuous imagery in 13 spectral bands from an altitude of 786 kilometers above Earth. With a scan width of 290 kilometers, the payload would provide imagery with resolutions of 10, 20 or 60 meters.

Sentinel-2C would eventually replace Sentinel-2A, which is identical to Sentinel-2B. Airbus is also under contract to supply the Sentinel-2D satellite, which will replace Sentinel-2B and ensure data continuity beyond 2035.

The satellites are part of Copernicus, the Earth observation arm of the European Union’s space programme that exploits various technologies in orbit.

“Around half of the data used to assess and monitor the impact of climate change on Earth is actually provided by satellites,” Marc Steckling, head of Earth observation, science and exploration at Airbus, said in a statement.

“The Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites have been providing valuable climate information to scientists since 2015 and Sentinel-2C will ensure continuity. In addition, they have also made monitoring of marine debris from space a reality, a significant step forward given the importance of this problem.”

Arianespace’s next-generation Vega C medium-lift rocket successfully launched a handful of satellites on its maiden flight in July 2022.

However, the rocket failed to reach orbit on its second mission five months later – destroying two Airbus Pléiades Neo imaging satellites in the process – and has remained grounded ever since.

The European Space Agency announced in May that it was preparing to return Vega C to service before the end of 2024.

The final flight of the original version of the Vega rocket was also scheduled to launch earlier this year before it encountered a problem with its upper stage.

After a series of failures, the first flight of Arianespace’s Ariane 6 heavy rocket, the successor to Ariane 5, is scheduled to take place on July 9 from French Guiana.

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