ESA books Eurockot Launch for
Sentinel-5p Satellite
January 30, 2014
The European Space Agency (ESA) has converted a previously
contracted back-up launch on a Rockot to a firm agreement with
Eurockot Launch Services GmbH for placing into orbit an
additional spacecraft from the Copernicus Sentinel range of
satellites. Sentinel-5p will be the third satellite from this
series to be launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Rockot.
ESA had previously contracted Eurockot for the launches of
Sentinel-3A and
Sentinel-2B, respectively in Q2 2015 and Q1 2016. Sentinel-5p is
scheduled to be
launched during the course of 2016.
Eurockot recently performed the successful combined launch of
the 3 Swarm satellites
for the European Space Agency on November 22, 2013.
Copernicus (formerly GMES – Global Monitoring for the
Environment and Security) is
the Earth observation satellite programme, funded by the
European Union with ESA
carrying out the implementation of the programme, including
amongst others spacecraft
contracting and launch services. Sentinel-5p is under
construction at the Stevenage
facility of Airbus Defence & Space in the United Kingdom.
With a mass of approx. 900 kg, Sentinel-5p (p for precursor)
will monitor the air quality
of the atmosphere by means of the TROPOMI atmospheric
composition spectrometer
instrument (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument) built by Dutch
Space and jointly
funded by ESA and the Netherlands Space Office (NSO).
The Rockot launcher will inject the spacecraft into a
sun-synchronous orbit of approx.
830 km altitude.
The next Copernicus Sentinel spacecraft on the manifest of
Eurockot is Sentinel-3A
which is presently scheduled to be launched from 2Q 2015 from
Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
The launch of Sentinel-2B, which replaces the initially planned
Sentinel-2A, shall take
place at the beginning of 2016.
Eurockot Launch Services GmbH is the joint venture operated by
Airbus Defense and
Space (51%) and Khrunichev Space Center (49%) and provides
launch services to
commercial and institutional operators of Low Earth Orbit
spacecraft. Eurockot is based
in Bremen, Germany.
