The launch took place on Monday, March 6, at 10:49 p.m. local time from the Guiana Space Center (CSG), Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

This was the third launch of the year for Arianespace and the first in 2017 with the Vega light launcher. It also marked the ninth successful launch in a row for Vega, which made its debut at the Guiana Space Center in 2012.

With this latest successful launch, Arianespace once again demonstrates its commitment to sustainable development, while also carrying out its mission of guaranteeing European independent access to space.

Arianespace at the service of sustainable development with the European Copernicus program

Following the successful launches of Sentinel-1A, Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-1B, today’s mission with Sentinel-2B marks the fourth satellite in the European Commission’s Copernicus Earth observation program to be orbited by Arianespace from the Guiana Space Center.

The Sentinel-2B Earth observation satellite mainly focuses on monitoring land masses and coastal zones around the world. It will be positioned in an orbit opposite that of Sentinel-2A to ensure optimum coverage and data delivery. The pair of Sentinel-2 satellites will cover the Earth’s entire surface in five days. This high frequency means they will capture brand-new views of the Earth, driving considerable progress in monitoring and predicting changes in vegetation and aquatic pollution.

Sentinel-2B combines a multispectral, wide-swath, very-high-resolution optical imaging instrument with a dedicated platform developed by Airbus, a long-standing partner to Arianespace. It is the 117th Airbus-built satellite to be launched by Arianespace. There are 16 more satellites from this manufacturer in Arianespace’s order book, not counting the OneWeb constellation.

Sentinel-2B is the 61st Earth observation satellite to be launched by Arianespace. These types of satellites represents 10% of all spacecraft launched by Arianespace since being founded, and 23% of its current order backlog (in number of satellites).

Arianespace guarantees independent and dependable access to space for Europe

With this launch on behalf of the European Commission and within the scope of an ESA contract, Arianespace fulfills its mission of guaranteeing independent and dependable access to space for Europe.

In 2017, Arianespace also will orbit four additional satellites for the Galileo program on behalf of the European Commission and ESA.

A new commercial success for Vega

The eight previous missions performed by Vega prior to Flight VV09 included both government and commercial customers. Looking ahead, the launcher’s order book – primarily comprising Earth observation missions – now counts seven launches, one-third of which are for European institutions and the remaining two-thirds for export customers.

Arianespace is gearing up for the future with Vega C, slated to make its first flight as from 2019. Vega C will:

• Offer higher performance in terms of payload weight and volume;
• Handle a greater variety of missions, from nano-satellites to large optical and radar observation satellites; and
• Be more competitive as a result.

Shortly after the announcement that the Sentinel-2B satellite had been injected into orbit, Arianespace Chairman and CEO Stéphane Israël said: “With this third launch of the year, and the first in 2017 for our light launcher, Arianespace guarantees Europe’s independent access to space and continues to support actions in favor of sustainable development. Sentinel-2B is the fourth satellite launched by Arianespace for the European Copernicus program.

“I would like to thank the European Commission for their ongoing confidence, as well as ESA, our direct customer for this launch. Congratulations to all our partners in this latest success: Airbus, which built Sentinel-2B; the industrial prime contractor for Vega – ELV/Avio – which is  the artisan at our side in the success of Vega; the European Space Agency, whose support is essential for the Vega program, for which Italy’s ASI space agency is the leading financier; CNES/CSG and all companies and staff at the launch base, who continue to support us as we go from success to success; and lastly, congratulations to Arianespace’s own teams for the success of this 260th launch from the Guiana Space Center.”