We have a launch date for Copernicus Sentinel-2C

On Tuesday September 3, 2024, at 10.50 p.m. local time (September 4, at 1.50 a.m. UTC, 3.50 a.m. CET), from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, onboard a Vega launcher.

The satellite is currently undergoing a precise series of pre-launch tests in preparation for its lift-off.

Sentinel-2C is part of the European Commission’s Copernicus Earth Observation programme, the world’s most advanced Earth observation system. Copernicus provides continuous, independent, and reliable Earth observation data and services to public authorities, companies and citizens around the globe. 

Read this: 7 Times the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission gave us stunning images of our planet

The Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite, with its wide swath, high-resolution, and multi-spectral imaging capabilities, will support a broad range of operational applications including agriculture, water quality monitoring, natural disaster management (e.g. wildfires, volcanoes, floods), and methane emissions detection. For agriculture, the mission helps to monitor crop health, predict yields and enable precision farming. Images are used to detect crop type, and to determine biophysical variables such as leaf area index, leaf chlorophyll content and leaf water content to monitor plant growth and health.