Overview
- Lift off occurred at 21:02 UTC from Kourou with spacecraft separation about 33½ minutes later into a 693-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit.
- The 2,184-kilogram satellite carries C-band SAR and an AIS payload to support applications from flood mapping to identifying ships that are not transmitting.
- ESA says Sentinel-1D replaces Sentinel-1A, which is operating in a degraded mode, and plans to begin lowering Sentinel-1A’s orbit once 1D is commissioned.
- This was the fourth Ariane 6 flight overall and the third this year, using the two-booster Ariane 62 configuration with a debris-mitigation deorbit burn planned for the upper stage.
- Officials selected Ariane 6 for the earliest available European launch slot, with another Ariane 6 mission slated to carry two Galileo satellites later this year and the first Ariane 64 now expected in early 2026.