Overview
- SpaceX’s Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg at 9:21 p.m. PST on Nov. 16, and the satellite separated about 57 minutes later into its target 1,336-kilometer, 66-degree orbit.
- ESA’s operations center confirmed first contact via the Inuvik ground station, reporting the spacecraft healthy and entering commissioning ahead of EUMETSAT operations.
- Carrying a radar altimeter and NASA’s microwave radiometer, Sentinel‑6B will measure sea-surface height to inch-level precision across roughly 90% of the world’s oceans for weather, flooding, and maritime uses.
- The mission continues an uninterrupted sea-level record begun with TOPEX/Poseidon and the Jason series, with data continuity prioritized through parallel flight and cross-calibration with Sentinel‑6A.
- The program is a roughly $1 billion collaboration among NASA, ESA, EUMETSAT, NOAA, the European Commission, and CNES, and the flight also marked the 500th mission using a reflown Falcon 9 booster, which landed at Vandenberg’s LZ-4.