The next satellite in the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation satellite system, Sentinel-3C, has been unpacked from its container at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The satellite was then attached and integrated onto a ‘dolly’ – a specialised cart that safely moves and turns the spacecraft during launch preparations.

The Sentinel-3 mission, developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) for Copernicus, captures operational data and provides services for near real time responses as well as for long term climate monitoring over Earth’s land surfaces, inland water, ice, oceans and atmosphere. It is part of the Copernicus fleet of satellites, which contributes altimetry data and optical imagery to the European Union Space Programme. Sentinel-3 provides a breadth of data for Copernicus, which ranges from altimetry to spectrometry and radiometry in infrared and thermal channels.

Together with ESA's FLEX mission, the Sentinel-3 satellite is due to be launched on Vega-C in September.