The third Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite was launched last night aboard a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The launch marked the return of the Italian-built Vega-C launcher, two years after a failure during its debut commercial mission.
Sentinel-1C builds on the success of its predecessors, delivering high-resolution radar images to monitor Earth’s changing environment. It supports various applications, advances scientific research, and adds new capabilities for tracking maritime traffic.
With 12 Sentinel satellite families, Copernicus is the world’s largest Earth observation system and boasts the largest repository of radar data, according to its developers.