The latest guardian of our oceans has taken its place in orbit. The Copernicus Sentinel-6B satellite is now circling Earth, ready to continue a decades-long mission to track the height of the planet’s seas – a key measure of climate change.

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Nov 17, 2025
Copernicus Sentinel-6B launched today, 17 November, at 06:21 CET aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The satellite was delivered into orbit just under an hour after liftoff, and at 07:54 CET ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Germany received the signal via the Inuvik ground station in Canada, confirming that Sentinel-6B is operational and healt

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Copernicus Sentinel-6B was launched on 17 November 2025, ready to continue a decades-long mission to track the height of the planet’s seas – a key measure of climate change. The satellite was carried into orbit on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, US.

Sentinel-6B follows in the footsteps of its predecessor, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, which was launched in 2020. The mission is the reference radar altimetry mission that continues the vital record of sea-surface height measurements until at least 2030.

Copernicus Sentinel-6 has become the gold standard reference mission to monitor and record

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