FLEX and Sentinel-3C within the Vega-C fairing
This illustration depicts ESA’s Earth Explorer FLEX satellite and the Copernicus Sentinel-3C satellite within a Vega-C rocket that takes both satellites into orbit from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
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Sentinel-3C is injected into orbit first so it is positioned above the FLEX satellite in the fairing.
FLEX is equipped with the Fluorescence Imaging Spectrometer that detects the faint fluorescence emitted by plants during photosynthesis. Although invisible to the human eye, this signal varies with plant health and environmental conditions. By measuring this exceptionally weak fluorescence, FLEX’s data will be used to generate global monthly vegetation fluorescence maps at a spatial resolution of 300 m × 300 m. These measurements can used to assess photosynthetic activity, vegetation health and plant stress.
Sentinel-3C is the third in the Sentinel-3 series. Carrying a suite of cutting-edge instruments, Copernicus Sentinel-3C will continue the mission’s task of measuring systematically Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics. The mission also provides essential information in near-real time for ocean and weather forecasting.
Vega-C is a single-body rocket nearly 35 m high with that weighs 210 tonnes on the launch pad. Vega-C can launch 2.3 tonnes to a Sun-synchronous orbit, 3.3 tonnes to low Earth orbit and 2.5 tonnes to polar orbits. Using a new range of payload carriers, Vega-C can accommodate a mix of cargo shapes and sizes, ranging from CubeSats to a large single payload.
