The second in the two-satellite Sentinel-2 mission is set for launch from French Guiana on 7 March at 01:49 GMT (02:49 CET).

Sentinel-2 is the second mission for Europe’s Copernicus environment monitoring programme. It carries a wide-swath high-resolution multispectral imager working in 13 spectral bands for a new perspective of our land and vegetation. The first in the two-satellite mission, Sentinel-2A, was launched in June 2015 – and now its twin is set for liftoff on 7 March.

The Sentinel-2B satellite will be launched on a Vega rocket from Europe’s Spaceport near Kourou in French Guiana, an overseas department of France.