Kourou, French Guiana 03 April 2014
It was launched yesterday, April 3rd, fromt the Kourou base in French Guiana, Sentinel-1 A, the European Space Agency (ESA) satellite designed and built by Thales Alenia Space.
Sentinel-1 A is the first satellite in Europe's vast Copernicus Earth Observation program of ESA in partnership with European Commission. The program’s goal is to ensure European independence in the acquisition and management of environmental data concerning our planet, to support European authorities and policy-makers.
Thales Alenia Space is prime contractor for the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3 missions, responsible for the design, development, integration and testing of the satellites comprising these systems.
Italy plays a key role in the Copernicus program, backed by the Italian space agency (ASI), which has supported the country's broad commitment to spaceborne Earth observation programs.
Another important industrial partner is Telespazio, which is involved in the space component ground segment development and operations; it also works as data provider of COSMO-SkyMed and DigitalGlobe as contributing missions to Copernicus services and it is the operational geo-spatial service provider of land monitoring, emergency response and maritime security services.
In particular e-GEOS has won two tenders launched by the European Commission as part of the Copernicus programme. In 2012, e-GEOS’Matera Space Centre became one of the four stations part of the Copernicus Core Ground Segment. It will receive radar and optical data acquired by sensors aboard Sentinel satellites.