With liftoff set for 4 September from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, the Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite is now fully loaded with 133 kg of hydrazine and the tank pressurised with helium up to 21 bars.

The satellite has been at the Spaceport since 22 July being prepared for launch on a Vega rocket.

The Sentinel-2 mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites, Sentinel-2A (launched in 2015) and Sentinel-2B (launched in 2017), flying in the same orbit but 180° apart to optimise coverage and revisit time.

Each satellite carries a high-resolution multispectral imager to deliver optical images from the visible to the shortwave-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. From the altitude of 786 km, the satellites provide images in 13 spectral bands with resolutions of 10, 20 and 60 m over a large swath width of 290 km.

Data collected from Sentinel-2 are used for a wide range of applications, including precision farming, water quality monitoring, natural disaster management and methane emission detection.

Once in orbit, Sentinel-2C will replace its predecessor, Sentinel-2A, while Sentinel-2D will later replace Sentinel-2B.

For more updates see ESA’s Earth observation launch campaigns blog