Sentinel-3A is a

European Space Agency The European Space Agency (ESA) is a 23-member International organization, international organization devoted to space exploration. With its headquarters in Paris and a staff of around 2,547 people globally as of 2023, ESA was founded in 1975 ...

Earth observation satellite An Earth observation satellite or Earth remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, me ...

dedicated to

oceanography Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of to ...

which launched on 16 February 2016. It was built as a part of the Copernicus Programme, and is the first of four planned Sentinel-3 satellites. Its sister satellite, Sentinel-3B, launched on 25 April 2018. After completing initial commissioning, each satellite was handed over to EUMETSAT for the routine operations phase of the mission. Two recurrent satellites - Sentinel-3C and Sentinel-3D - will follow in approximately 2025 and 2028 respectively to ensure continuity of the Sentinel-3 mission.

Mission history

In October 2015, the Sentinel-3A launch was planned for December 2015, but delays in transportation from

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

to the

Plesetsk Cosmodrome Plesetsk Cosmodrome () is a Russian spaceport located in Mirny, Arkhangelsk Oblast, near the town of Plesetsk, from which it takes its name. Until 2025 and the commissioning of the Andøya Space, Andøya base in Norway, it was the only operati ...

postponed the launch to January 2016. The spacecraft arrived at

Talagi Airport Talagi Airport ( Russian: Аэропорт Архангельск (Тала́ги) имени Ф.А. Абрамова) is an international airport serving Arkhangelsk, Russia, located 11 kilometers outside the city. In 2001, it had 105,797 pas ...

aboard an Antonov An-124 on 28 November. By 17 December, Sentinel-3A completed pre-launch testing and was placed into storage for the Christmas break, lasting until 11 January 2016. After the break, launch was scheduled for 4 February, but while the spacecraft was being fuelled for launch, Khrunichev Space Center in Moscow determined that the launch pad needed to be recertified, resulting in a further delay. Launch was eventually rescheduled for 16 February.

Launch

Sentinel-3A was successfully launched on 16 February 2016 at 17:57 UTC from the

aboard a

Rokot Rokot ( meaning ''Rumble'' or ''Boom''), also transliterated Rockot, was a Soviet Union (later Russian) space launch vehicle that was capable of launching a payload of into a Earth orbit with 63° inclination. It was based on the UR-100N ( ...

launch vehicle. The Briz-KM upper stage fired twice to insert the spacecraft into its intended orbit, first at 5 minutes and then at 75 minutes after launch. Spacecraft separation occurred at 79 minutes after launch, and ground controllers received the first communication from the vehicle at 92 minutes.

Operations

The first instrument switched on was OLCI. It made its first picture on 29 February 2016, capturing

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island along with a part of the

arctic ice pack The Arctic ice pack is the sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and its vicinity. The Arctic ice pack undergoes a regular seasonal cycle in which ice melts in spring and summer, reaches a minimum around mid-September, then increases during fall a ...

near solar terminator.

References

External links

Sentinel-3 program website
by ESA
Sentinel-3 website
by the Copernicus Programme
Real-time orbital tracking

uphere.space
{{Use dmy dates, date=January 2016 Copernicus Programme Earth observation satellites of the European Space Agency Earth satellite radar altimeters Spacecraft launched by Rokot rockets Spacecraft launched in 2016 Oceanographic satellites

Mission history

Launch

Operations

See also

References

External links