The second Sentinel-2 satellite, Sentinel-2B, has arrived at Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Here, engineers will prepare it for liftoff, which is planned for 7 March at 02:49 CET (6 March 22:49 local time).
Offering ‘colour vision’ for Europe’s environmental monitoring Copernicus programme, Sentinel-2 combines high-resolution, novel multispectral capabilities and a 290 km-wide swath to monitor Earth’s changing lands in unprecedented detail and accuracy. The mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites, Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B, launched separately. Sentinel-2A was launched on 23 June 2015 and soon will be joined by its twin. Orbiting 180° apart, they will cover all Earth’s land surfaces, large islands, inland and coastal waters between 84°N and 56°S every five days, optimising global coverage and data delivery for numerous applications.