Testing the deployment of the Sentinel-1A radar antenna in the cleanroom at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France, on 21 January 2014. As the satellite is designed to operate in orbit, it is hung from a structure during tests to simulate weightlessness.

The Synthetic Aperture Radar, or SAR, will provide an all-weather day-and-night supply of imagery for services such as the monitoring of Arctic sea-ice extent, routine sea-ice mapping, surveillance of the marine environment, monitoring land-surface for motion risks and mapping to support humanitarian aid and crisis situations.

Sentinel-1A – the first satellite built for the Copernicus environmental monitoring programme – is foreseen for launch in the spring of 2014 from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.