|
Daily news


 |
Arianespace Supporting The
European Union’s Copernicus Programme With Vega C
On November 29, 2022
Arianespace announced having
signed with the European Commission (Directorate
General for Defence, Industry and Space), a contract
for the procurement of five launch services with
Vega C for the Copernicus component of the European
Union’s (EU) Space Programme.
“I would like to thank the
European commission, especially the DG DEFIS teams,
along with ESA, for continuing to entrust us with
the launch of the Sentinel satellites of the
Copernicus Programme,” said Stéphane Israël, CEO of
Arianespace. “To support the European Union’s
ambitions and to ensure its sovereign access to
Space is at the heart of our mission. This signature
once again demonstrates the versatility and
competitiveness to the new European light launcher
Vega C, which backlog is now boosted to 13
launches.”
Timo Pesonen, Director-General
of DG DEFIS said: “Thanks to this new contract with
Arianespace, the European Commission is securing
Copernicus launches over the next six years. These
launches will ensure that, with the support of ESA,
the Copernicus constellation is replenished and new
observation capacities are put into orbit. We look
forward to this new partnership with Vega C and
Arianespace, key for the implementation of the EU
Space Programme”.
The Sentinel satellites
included in the contract are: Sentinel-1D, will be
equiped with a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to
provide all-weather ocean and land high resolution
multi-purpose observations. It will round out the
initial capacity offered by the preceding Sentinel-1
satellites to offer a comprehensive response to the
needs for environmental and security monitoring via
space-borne radar systems. The satellite, weighing
around 2.3 metric tonnes, will be placed in a Sun[1]synchronous
orbit with an altitude around 690 km. The launch is
scheduled from the second half of 2024. In April
2021, Arianespace was selected for the launch of
Sentinel-1C satellite, scheduled in the first half
of 2023 on board Vega C. Arianespace previously
launched Sentinel-1A in 2014 and -1B in 2016.
|
|
|
|