Sentinel-2A being encapsulated within the half-shells of the Vega rocket fairing and integrated at the top of the launcher, in June 2015 at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.Sentinel-2A will soon be launched from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on top of a Vega launcher, making it the second satellite in orbit for Europe's Copernicus programme.

The Sentinel-2 mission carries an optical payload with visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared sensors with a swath width of 290 km. The polar-orbiting, multispectral high-resolution imaging mission for land monitoring will provide, for example, imagery of vegetation, soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areas, as well as deliver information for emergency services.

Sentinel-2A – and its sister satellite Sentinel-2B to be launched next year – are part of the family of Sentinel missions that ESA is developing specifically for the operational needs of the environment-monitoring Copernicus programme, headed by the European Commission. Each mission is based on a constellation of two satellites to fulfill revisit and coverage requirements, providing robust datasets for Copernicus Services.