Sea-level charting satellite arrives at California launch site

Following its voyage by ship from Germany to Texas in the U.S. and then carried by truck to California, the Copernicus Sentinel-6B satellite has arrived at a NASA facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Teams from the main mission partners, NASA and ESA and ESA’s prime contractor Airbus, will soon begin final preparations for Sentinel-6B’s launch later this year.

Sentinel-6B will follow in the footsteps of its predecessor, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, assuming the role of the reference radar altimetry mission to continue the vital record of sea-surface height measurements through at least 2030.

Sentinel-6 is one of the European Union’s family of Copernicus missions and its implementation is the result of an exceptional cooperation between the European Commission, ESA, NASA, Eumetsat, and NOAA, with support from the CNES French space agency.