Last night, the Ariane 6 rocket took off from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, successfully placing the Copernicus Sentinel-1D satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 693 kilometres. This was the third commercial flight for Ariane 6, which successfully separated the satellite just 34 minutes after take-off.
With this mission, Arianespace has now launched seven Sentinel satellites for the European Union’s Copernicus programme, which is dedicated to Earth observation. David Cavaillolès, the company’s CEO, described the flight as “another milestone in Europe’s commitment to using space for the benefit of life on Earth”. Martin Sion, CEO of ArianeGroup, stressed that the success of the fourth consecutive Ariane 6 flight “demonstrates its reliability and guarantees Europe’s sovereign access to space”.
Built by Thales Alenia Space, the Sentinel-1D joins the Copernicus satellite constellation, which provides continuous, free data for monitoring the environment, sea ice, glaciers and oil spills, among other things.
Spanish companies have also played a significant role in this achievement. ALTER, ARQUIMEA, GMV, HV Sistemas, Sener and Thales Alenia Space España have contributed to key areas such as electronics engineering, thermal control, control and communication systems, deployment mechanisms and mission control centres. This consolidates Spain’s position as a leading player in the European space industry, providing innovation and cutting-edge technology.
From Seville, Spain’s Space Capital, we would like to offer our sincere congratulations to everyone who made this new space milestone possible.
