An important milestone has been reached in developing the upcoming Copernicus Radar Observing System for Europe in L-band satellite, known as ROSE-L. Engineers have tested the deployment of a structural model of its huge radar antenna – a key step towards preparing this new satellite for launch and its mission to monitor Earth’s land, oceans and ice from orbit.

One of the six Copernicus Sentinel Expansion missions, ROSE-L, whose development is led by Thales Alenia Space as the mission’s prime contractor, will help strengthen Europe’s Earth-observation capabilities, complementing existing missions such as Sentinel-1 while expanding monitoring services for land management, food security, emergency response, and climate science.

The video shows how the deployment of ROSE-L’s synthetic aperture radar was recently tested at Airbus Defence and Space’ facilities in Friedrichshafen, Germany.

Read full story: ROSE-L radar unfolds in crucial ground test