Space, Airbus completes the integration of the 3rd Copernicus Sentinel-2C

New turning point for the mission of the third Copernicus Sentinel 2C satellite for environmental observation from space. Airbus announced that it has finished integrating the Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite, the third of its kind, and that it will now be shipped to Munich to undergo extensive environmental testing to prove its readiness for space. The test campaign will last until March 2022. Copernicus is the European environmental monitoring program led by the European Commission in collaboration with the European Space Agency and the Sentinel satellites return from the Earth’s remote sensing data space, providing key operational services related to the environment and safety. The data collected by the Sentinel-2 satellites are in fact used to monitor land use and changes, soil sealing, land management, agriculture, forestry, natural disasters – floods, forest fires, landslides and erosion – and for assistance during humanitarian aid missions. Environmental observation in coastal areas is also part of these activities, as is monitoring of glaciers, ice and snow. Airbus points out that by offering “color vision” for the Copernicus program, Sentinel-2C – like its precursor satellites Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B – will provide optical images from the visible to infrared short-wave range of the electromagnetic spectrum. From an altitude of 786 kilometers from Earth, the 1.1 ton “C” satellite will allow continued imaging in 13 spectral bands with a resolution of 10, 20 or 60 meters and a unique width of 290 kilometers. Airbus further explains that the telescope structure and mirrors are made of silicon carbide, first used by Airbus to provide very high optical stability and minimize thermoelastic deformation, resulting in excellent geometric image quality. This is unprecedented in this category of optical imagers. Each Sentinel-2 satellite collects 1.5 terabytes per day after onboard compression. The data is formatted at high speed and stored temporarily on board in the highest capacity mass storage and formatting unit currently in space flight. Data logging and laser downlink can be done simultaneously at high speed through the Edrs SpaceDataHighway, in addition to direct X-band connection to ground stations. The Sentinel-2 mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites, Sentinel-2A (launched in 2015) and Sentinel-2B (launched in 2017), flying in the same orbit but 180 ° apart for coverage and revisiting time optimal. Satellites orbit the Earth every 100 minutes covering all of the Earth’s land surfaces, large islands, inland and coastal waters every five days. Sentinel-2 satellites are currently systematically surveying all land and water areas, producing excellent results. Last year, the Sentinel-2 mission remained the top European mission in terms of peer-reviewed scientific publications, amounting to 1,200 during 2020, and the volume of data distributed to users. The Sentinel-2 mission was made possible thanks to the close collaboration between ESA, the European Commission, industry, service providers and data users. Its development involved around 60 companies, led by Airbus Defense and Space in Germany for satellites and Airbus Defense and Space in France for multispectral instruments, while Airbus Defense and Space in Spain is responsible for the mechanical structure of the satellite.