MTG-S1 and Sentinel-4 transport container ready to unload

With liftoff scheduled for summer 2025, the first Meteosat Third Generation Sounder (MTG-S1), with the Copernicus Sentinel-4 instrument on board, arrived at Cape Canaveral harbour, US.

Transported aboard the cargo ship MN Colibri, the satellite container is now ready to be unloaded onto the convoy that will bring it to the Astrotech facilities, where launch preparation will take place in the coming weeks.

MTG-S1’s sounder will provide coverage of Europe and part of northern Africa on a repeat cycle of 15 minutes, providing meteorologists with a complete weather picture of the region, complementing data on cloud formation and lightning from its sibling MTG-I.

The MTG-S1 satellite hosts the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission which is an ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared light spectrometer that captures data every hour to monitor air quality and pollution over Europe and North Africa.