Overview
- Ariane 6 lifted off from Kourou at 22:02 CET on November 4, completed a nominal insertion, separated the spacecraft about 34 minutes later, and received the first signal at 23:22 CET.
- Sentinel-1D was placed in a Sun-synchronous orbit at roughly 693 kilometers to start a three-day LEOP followed by about ten days of orbit maneuvers.
- ESA plans seven 12-day calibration cycles for the radar, with initial test images expected within weeks and handover to routine operations targeted around April.
- The satellite will operate 180 degrees from Sentinel-1C to enable roughly six-day global radar revisits and will strengthen maritime monitoring through its AIS receiver.
- The C-band SAR provides all-weather, day-and-night imaging and millimetric ground-motion tracking that underpins services such as EGMS, with open data access and an expected life of at least seven years.