Sentinel

Descartes Labs forms imagery partnership with Airbus
Descartes Labs announced Aug. 15 a partnership with Airbus to feed high resolution global imagery into its geospatial data platform. The Sante Fe, New Mexico-based startup also completed beta testing of its cloud-based “data refinery,” and added weather data.

Copernicus DIAS is biggest ESA contract for Poland to date
A 15 million euro ($17.8 million) contract to build one of the five Copernicus Data and Information Access Services (DIAS) platforms has been awarded by the European Space Agency to a Polish-led consortium – the biggest ESA deal the ex-communist country closed since having joined the agency in 2012.

European Commission pleased with Copernicus program
The European Commission gave a positive assessment of its Copernicus Earth-observation program, now in its third year, defending the free provision of data and emphasizing a need to make that data more applicable to non-space users.

UK hopes to stay involved in Copernicus post Brexit
The Oct. 13 launch of the air-pollution-monitoring satellite Sentinel 5P was a bittersweet moment for the UK space sector.

Russia’s Rockot delivers Europe’s Sentinel-5P satellite to orbit
The Rockot lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 5:27 a.m. Eastern carrying the Sentinel-5P satellite.

Vega rocket launches latest Sentinel Earth observation satellite
The spacecraft carries a suite of multi-wavelength sensors for land imaging, and will work with Sentinel-2A launched in 2015.

Europe’s Sentinel-3A Earth observation satellite successfully launched
Europe’s Sentinel-3A Earth observation satellite on Feb. 16 was successfully placed into low Earth orbit aboard a German-Russian Rockot launch vehicle operating from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

Thales Alenia Inks Deal To Build 2 More Sentinel Satellites for ESA
The contract, valued at 402 million euros ($441 million), will help guarantee the promised data continuity of the multibillion-euro Copernicus effort.

ESA Picks Flex for Next Earth Explorer
The European Space Agency confirmed that it has accepted a science panel’s recommendation that the Fluorescence Explorer satellite be the agency’s next Earth Explorer environment-monitoring satellite.

B612 Presses Ahead with Asteroid Mission Despite Setbacks
The nonprofit B612 Foundation says it is continuing efforts to develop a space telescope to search for near-Earth asteroids despite fundraising challenges and a recent NASA decision to terminate a cooperative agreement.

Vega Launches Sentinel-2A Observation Satellite
Europe’s Vega rocket on June 22 successfully launched the Sentinel 2A optical Earth observation satellite for the European Commission.