Sentinel-1 launch. The ESA mission for Copernicus.

Sentinel-1 launch. The ESA mission for Copernicus.


Sentinel-1 has been launched on April 3rd at 23:00 CEST. 

It is the first of 5 satellites of Sentinel Constellation, developed by the European Space Agency for the European programme Copernicus (former GMES), providing accurate, timely and easily accessible information to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security.

 Each Sentinel mission is based on a constellation of two satellites to fulfil revisit and coverage requirements, providing robust datasets for Copernicus Services. These missions carry a range of technologies, such as radar and multi-spectral imaging instruments for land, ocean and atmospheric monitoring.

The Sentinel-1 mission comprises a constellation of two polar-orbiting satellites, operating day and night performing C-band synthetic aperture radar imaging, enabling them to acquire imagery regardless of the weather..

The data collected by Sentinel satellites will be free, open and available on the Sentinel Data Hub

Watch the first Sentinel-1A images collected over Brussels, Namibia and Antarctica.

To know more about Sentinel and Copernicus: