Green for Sentinel-2
On Monday this week, 30 days before the scheduled launch of Sentinel-2B, flight director Pier Paolo Emanuelli reported that the ‘ground segment’ – the hardware, systems and networks used on Earth to control the satellite in orbit – is ‘green’ for launch.
Liftoff is scheduled for 7 March at 01:49 GMT on a Vega rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. The mission control team at ESA’s mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, will take over control of Sentinel-2B about 58 minutes later.
In Darmstadt, final prelaunch activities, including simulation training and readiness tests, are in high gear as the centre counts down to Europe’s newest Copernicus satellite.
In the photo, Pier Paolo Emanuelli discusses Sentinel flight operations with ESA’s head of operations, Paolo Ferri, in the main control room.
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