ESA - meteosat third generation

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The mission

Building on the long-standing partnership between ESA and Eumetsat, Meteosat Third Generation will guarantee the continuity of data for weather forecasting from geostationary orbit for the next two decades. The full MTG system is based on a series of two types of satellite: four MTG-Imagers and two MTG-Sounders.

Launches

MTG-I1: 13 December 2022 from Kourou, French Guiana on Ariane 5
MTG-I2: from Kourou, French Guiana on Ariane 6

MTG-S1: 1 July 2025 from Cape Canaveral, Florida on SpaceX Falcon 9

6 satellite system
4 Imager satellites
2 Sounder satellites
20-year operational life

meteosat third generation

FLEX, Sentinel-3C and MTG-I2 on show at TAS cleanrooms

Three ESA-built satellites on show in France

16/04/2026 2967 views 57 likes

Medicane Jolina from MSG

Getting to the core of a medicane

27/03/2026 4098 views 41 likes

MTG-I2 pushed into place for final environmental tests

Next MTG satellite passes final environmental tests

27/03/2026 583 views 19 likes

Press Release N° 13–2026

Media invitation: three innovative European weather and climate satellites in the cleanroom

Journalists are invited to a one-off opportunity to see three ESA-built satellites in their final preparations before liftoff.

11/03/2026 1165 views

Global air humidity by MTG-Sounder

Europe’s next-generation weather satellite sends back first…

27/01/2026 88168 views 87 likes

Second MTG-Imager in the thermal vacuum chamber

Second MTG-Imager satellite passes thermal vacuum test

04/09/2025 2708 views 38 likes

MTG-S1 and Sentinel-4 inside Falcon 9

Media invitation: MTG-S1 and Sentinel-4 pre-launch briefings

Sentinel-4 on MTG-S

Media invitation: cleanroom visit to MTG-S and Sentinel-4

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Discover Meteosat Third Generation

Meteosat Third Generation weather satellites

Introducing MTG

20238 views 34 likes

MSG-4 in orbit

Solid heritage

1217 views 2 likes

Rainy weather

Forecasting the weather

4397 views 3 likes

Cyclone Amphan making landfall over Bangladesh

Weathering the storm

1610 views 3 likes

Observing fast-evolving weather with MTG

Satellite constellation

3680 views 17 likes

FCI at Test Centre

Flexible Combined Imager

7549 views 26 likes

MTG to monitor lightning

Lightning Imager

12506 views 17 likes

Meteosat Third Generation Sounder up close

Infrared Sounder

3829 views 8 likes

Testing MTG imager

Facts and figures

3402 views 13 likes

MTG-I and MTG-S

Team talk: 10 things about Meteosat Third Generation

869 views 1 likes

MTG-Sounder satellite over the equator

Team talk: Soundbites from the cleanroom with MTG-S1

267 views 0 likes

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