Successful launch of SENTINEL-3A satellite
February 16, 2015
The third ESA-developed satellite carrying four Earth-observing instruments was successfully launched on 16 Feb 2016, ready to provide a ‘bigger picture’ for Europe’s Copernicus environment programme
Sentinel-3A – the first in the two-satellite Sentinel-3 mission – lifted off on a Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 17:57 GMT (18:57 CET) on 16 February 2016.
After a first burn starting about five minutes after liftoff and a second about 70 min later, Rockot’s upper stage delivered Sentinel-3A into its planned orbit, 817.5 km above Earth. The satellite separated 79 min into the flight.
The first signal from Sentinel-3A was received after 92 min by the Kiruna station in Sweden. Telemetry links and attitude control were then established by controllers at ESA’s ESOC operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, allowing them to monitor the health of the satellite.
