FLEX and Sentinel-3C arrive at Europe’s Spaceport
With liftoff scheduled for September, excitement is building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana as two cutting-edge Earth observation satellites, FLEX and Copernicus Sentinel-3C, have arrived to begin their launch campaigns.
Over the coming weeks, engineers and mission teams will carry out a series of rigorous inspections and prepare the satellites to be installed atop their Vega-C rocket for their journey into orbit.
The satellites have just completed a two-week sea voyage from Nice, France, crossing the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean before docking at Pariacabo, the port of Kourou, on 12 July.
The satellite containers were offloaded the following day and transported by road to Europe’s Spaceport, where the satellites will be carefully unpacked and readied for their intensive eight-week launch campaigns. This includes comprehensive health checks and testing, fuelling, and final preparations to ensure FLEX and Sentinel-3C are ready to be encapsulated within the Vega-C rocket fairing.
Sentinel-3C will be injected into orbit first so it will be positioned above the FLEX satellite in the fairing.
Francois Bausier, ESA’s Launch Campaign Manager for Sentinel-3C, said, “It was great to see Sentinel-3C arrive safely in French Guiana after its long journey. Over the next nine weeks, we'll work through a demanding programme of inspections, testing and preparations to make sure the satellite is in perfect condition for launch.
"It's a busy period for the whole team, but having the satellite here at Europe’s Spaceport is the last step before launch – a step we welcome and one that comes after years of integration and rigorous testing.”
Frank de Bruin, ESA’s Launch Campaign Manager for FLEX, added, “Yes indeed, it's fantastic to reach this milestone and to see both satellites beginning their launch campaigns side by side. Although FLEX and Sentinel-3C have different scientific objectives, our teams will be working closely together as we prepare the satellites for their shared journey into orbit.
"There's a real sense of excitement across everyone involved, and we're looking forward to taking FLEX through these final stages before launch.”
With both satellites now at Europe’s Spaceport, the focus turns to completing the intensive launch campaign that will culminate in their shared liftoff aboard Vega-C.
Europe’s Vega-C rocket is an evolution of the Vega rocket family, offering greater performance, larger payload capacity and improved competitiveness. It can launch up to 3300 kg into space, ideal for carrying small scientific and Earth observation satellites into orbit.
Sentinel-3C is the third satellite in the Copernicus Sentinel-3 series. Like its two older siblings in orbit, Sentinel-3C carries a suite of cutting-edge instruments that measure systematically Earth’s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics. It provides essential information in near-real time for ocean and weather forecasting.
ESA’s Earth Explorer FLEX will deliver the first global maps of vegetation fluorescence at a resolution of 300 m × 300 m to assess photosynthetic activity.
FLEX is equipped with the Fluorescence Imaging Spectrometer that will detect the faint fluorescence plants emit as they absorb sunlight during photosynthesis. Although invisible to the human eye, this subtle glow varies with plant health and environmental conditions.
In fact, the FLEX satellite will orbit in tandem with a Sentinel-3 satellite, which will be used to provide information on clouds, aerosols and water vapour as well as information about the land surface, such as the surface temperature, type of land cover and additional vegetation parameters. This integrated package of near-simultaneous measurements will provide an unprecedented view of global vegetation function and status.