Sentinel-1 is the first in a family of satellites built specifically to provide a stream of timely data for Europe’s ambitious Copernicus environmental monitoring programme. It carries an advanced radar to image Earth’s surface through cloud and rain and regardless of whether it is day or night. During launch, this 12 m-long radar and the solar wings are folded, but once the satellite is released into orbit they deploy in a careful sequence.

Delivering vital information for numerous operational services, from monitoring ice in the polar oceans to tracking land subsidence, Sentinel-1 is set to play a key role in the largest civil Earth-observation programme ever conceived.