MSG-4 liftoff

The last weather satellite in Europe’s highly successful Meteosat Second Generation (MTG) series lifted off on an Ariane 5 launcher at 21:42 GMT (23:42 CEST) from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The MSG satellites provide full-disc images over Europe and Africa every 15 minutes and ‘rapid scan’ imagery over Europe every five minutes. They are operated by Eumetsat – the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites – and ESA is responsible for their design, development and in-orbit delivery.