Sentinel-1C inside one half of Vega-C's fairing

On 19 November 2024 at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, Earth-observer Sentinel-1C and its payload adapter were encapsulated inside the Vega-C rocket fairing that will protect the spacecraft on the launch pad and on its ascent towards space.

Earth-observer Sentinel-1C is set to launch on Vega-C rocket flight VV25. At 35 m tall, Vega-C weighs 210 tonnes on the launch pad and reaches orbit with three solid-propellant-powered stages before the fourth liquid-propellant stage takes over for precise placement of Sentinel-1C into its orbit. 

The fairing is a nose-cone that splits vertically in two once the rocket has passed Earth's atmosphere, revealing Sentinel-1C to space. Vega-C's fairing is 3.3 m in diameter and over 9 m tall.

Carrying advanced radar technology to provide an all-weather, day-and-night supply of imagery of Earth’s surface, the ambitious Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission has raised the bar for spaceborne radar.

The mission benefits numerous Copernicus services and applications such as those that relate to Arctic sea-ice monitoring, iceberg tracking, routine sea-ice mapping, glacier-velocity monitoring, surveillance of the marine environment including oil-spill monitoring and ship detection for maritime security as well as illegal fisheries monitoring.

Europe’s Vega-C rocket can launch 2300 kg into space, such as small scientific and Earth observation spacecraft. Vega-C is the evolution of the Vega family of rockets and delivers increased performance, greater payload volume and improved competitiveness.