Overview
- Sentinel-1D lifted off on an Ariane 6 from Kourou and later checked in with mission control in Darmstadt, confirming “We have a mission.”
- Designed to take over from Sentinel-1A, the satellite will deliver comparable radar observations from the same orbital slot to preserve long time series.
- A new AIS payload enables ship detection to support monitoring of maritime traffic and potential illegal activity at sea.
- The radar can image through clouds and darkness and detect millimetre-scale ground changes useful for tracking floods, earthquakes and ice movement.
- The addition brings the constellation to 12 satellites with a nominal seven-year lifetime, and data remain largely open with security-sensitive imagery restricted and access blocks for Russia and Belarus.