Sentinel-2A is a European optical imaging satellite launched in 2015. It is the first Sentinel-2 satellite launched as part of the European Space Agency's Copernicus Programme. The satellite carries a wide swath high-resolution multispectral imager with 13 spectral bands. Its observations support services such as forest monitoring, land cover change-detection, natural disaster management and water quality monitoring.[4]
On 7 March 2017 the Sentinel-2A was joined in orbit by its sister satellite, Sentinel-2B.
Mission history
Launch
Sentinel 2A was launched by the VegaVV05 rocket on 23 June 2015 at 01:52 UTC. The satellite separated from the upper stage 54 min 43 s after liftoff.[5]
Orbital operation
The satellite captured its first image 100 hours after launch, covering a 290 km (180 mi) wide swath from Sweden through Central Europe to Algeria.[6][7]: 8 Commissioning occurred in October 2015.[7]: 8
Between 20 and 23 January 2017 the spacecraft suffered a mission planning anomaly which resulted in loss of data from its instrument, the Multi-Spectral Imager.[8]
^ abHoersch, Bianca (2015). A short success story of Sentinel-2A(PDF). Meeting of the Earth Observation Programme Board. 22–23 September 2015. ESRIN, Frascati, Italy. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).