LIVE! ESA Final Vega Sentinel-2C Launch

e e e e e e e e e well good evening everyone and welcome here to the Launchpad and our live launch coverage of the historic final Flight of the classic Vega launching from the elv launch site at the French Guana Space Center in the French Guana of France in South America if it's your first time here though welcome my name is Zach I'm the founder and host here at the Launchpad and here at TLP it's our mission to inform and Inspire the explorers of tomorrow cuz we believe that space is better together we just got an update in from uh the European Space Agency they have ended up deciding to delay their live coverage until the bottom of the hour which is just about 20 minutes from now so we apologize for going a little bit or live a little bit early there uh but we are waiting for that coverage to begin while we wait what we'll do is we'll switch on over to uh this screen here so you guys are able to see that we're waiting for their coverage to begin and of course the moment that it does uh we'll be able to patch them in and you'll be able to see it all there in the meantime we're going to answer your guys's comments and questions you can send those in the chat by taking us at the Launchpad on board today is Sentinel 2 and Earth observation Mission satellite developed by the European Space Agency as part of the co cernus program to perform terrestrial observations in support of services such as Forest monitoring land cover change detection and natural disaster management it's launching into a Sun synchronous orbit it's the only payload on board today we've seen Sentinels launch before the big thing today is this is the final Flight of the classic version of Vega after 22 flights it is being retired now this launch vehicle costs on average $37 million to launch it stands 29.9 M tall and there we go that is a live view out at the launch site with some beautiful writing on top of it but that is a live view from the launch complex uh of Vega out on the pad ready to go here today the rocket stands 29.2 uh 9 M tall uh and it has a fairing height of 7.8 M the fairing diameter 2.6 M and that's where Sentinel 2C is currently strapped on board it's a four-stage launch vehicle lifting off of 22,000 konun of thrust being able to place 1436 kg into orbit now today's payload is 1140 kg so a little under Max Capacity but Vega is pretty loaded down here today now the classic version of Vega launched for the very first time on February 13th of 2012 carrying Lars almaat one and some others to orbit it's carried a variety of satellites including Sentinel 2A all the way back in 2015 and Sentinel 2B in uh 2017 and it had another Sentinel I believe at the time nope this is the third one um it's carried some other ones but we haven't seen it launch uh for a little bit and that is because uh it had a failure in 2022 we had a single flight of Vega in October 2023 uh following the failure in December of 2022 prior to that it had been a bit busier launching two to three times a year uh for a couple of years there but now they are getting ready to retire it and transition to their new Vega SE rocket uh as Esa goes to uh advancing their program bringing new launchers online this is the 23rd flight here today it's had 20 successful launches three failures uh and it had a current success streak of one uh but uh prior to that it had a success streak of four failure one failure that prior to that 2019 it had a success streak all the way back to the beginning of it so it's almost as the older the rocket got it's had a little bit more trouble in its time as always if you guys have questions though you can keep sending those in the chat by taking us at the Launchpad and we'll work on answering those live while we continue through today's coverage uh Starship 29 and b11 is asking how fast could a mission like the dart mission to deflect an asteroid uh I'm assuming launch if needed uh so that's something all of the agencies are currently studying is how quickly could we do something something like that it really depends on uh what we discover if we were to discover an asteroid that was something that we ended up saying yes we need to deflect it or we want to attempt to deflect it depends how big it is where it is how fast it's moving and what's its composition if it's something that's just a bunch of little chunks of ice being held together um you need something hitting it but you don't necessarily need something as dense if it's a solid dense piece of rock or metal at worst um you need something a lot heavier uh possibly even multiple things and you need to be able to detect it way further that was one thing the dart mission was studying is one can we do it now the thing is if you could conduct a dart at the Moon verse you could conduct it at Jupiter you'd have a very different outcome in what that orbit change would be be even if it's a point of a point of a percent of change so that really is why it's such a big deal of us watching our skies learning what's out there we track tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of items in the sky but it's the things we don't track that are the scariest and the most risky as always as well take a moment let us know in the chat where we're watching from I know we got people tuning in all over the world we normally run into that but we're continuing to answer your questions Ted says I'd like to go there and see a launch from the French Guana sometime preferably in the winter yes winter will be preferred uh I I had an invite to go down for the final Aron 5 um and uh for I think we had one for Aron 6 um and uh it's just so hard to get to so one of the interesting things with the French Guana unless you're willing to rock or plane hop through the Caribbean um the easiest way to get to the French Guana in South America is actually to fly from North America to Paris and then fly back which means you're doing four 6 to 8 Hour flights um and that that's a lot of travel and it's not cheap uh and it's not uh there's not like eight flights a day kind of thing either so it's definitely something interesting to see but we definitely want to try to get down there at some point uh and bring you some coverage uh on one of these uh these bigger missions Jeff's watching watching from Amsterdam in the Netherlands the MJ Theory's in Philly Le's in Northwest Mississippi great to see you Ms is in Hawaii The Life of Alex says yes it is already tomorrow in England Patty's watching from Massachusetts in the USA great to be here Ted says missed a few of your streams but was able to catch this one well we're glad to have you here Ted and they're always there on replay uh we uh have moved down here to Florida uh and we are now getting the studio set up we are running on our main computer systems uh for this stream so super excited to have those back online need to still get all the monitors and backdrops and then we'll be back on video uh in uh hopefully a couple of weeks so make sure you stay tuned for that members you're going to start seeing some uh behind the scenes q&as and things we're going to try to to do um for it it's moving and doing Q&A behind the scenes a little bit hard uh ear than we planned but we're definitely wanting to uh do some more stuff with our members if you're interest to becoming a member and support what we do you can hit that join button down below it turns your name that beautiful color of go green and you get your TLP helmet next to you which the longer you're a member the different the color of your helmet Jim Cavit thank you so much for gifting that membership Corner page you got that membership from Jim I make a moment and say thank you for that we've got Westcott watching in Greenley Colorado Denise is in California great to have you joining us we got suu in Southwest Michigan uh dub selector is right there at vandenbberg California great to have you there cth says he's at the FBI will welcome if you are Nathaniel is at Victoria BC Sophia's watching in Jamaica farell is watching in Georgia beautiful drive last week through Georgia we got Tim is in Montgomery Alabama m is in East Texas Denise says plane hopping in the Caribbean is fun it is except for when your plane lands and then you have an 18 or 22-hour layover and then there another plane and they're all tiny planes so uh we might just have to Charter One sometime and do it that way and aution off some tickets for y'all to come with us we got Ginger and liquid Washington we've got Sam in New Zealand Patty's in Springfield Massachusetts a cat named Elon is in Ohio dcy Matrix is in uh Lithuania welcome uh Ricardo is in Melbourne welcome we got Stan in Bellow Falls Vermont uh Angie is watching from Alberta Canada hello to another Alberton uh I would say I miss home but there's Rockets here so uh love Alberta love the mountains but Rockets are a little more exciting uh Penny's in North Carolina Bob's also there in North Carolina we got Jim in North Wisconsin as well as Dean and Melbourne Australia and Ted is watching from his brand new starlink V3 in Westport Ontario that is awesome Ted you have to let us know how it goes I uh just placed an order for new starlink gear for us as well so excited to do some unboxing videos of those in the near future V3 and starlink mini uh and we're going to start rolling out some of those more into our uh mobile operation equipment uh of ifgs asks have they resolved uh do you know how aill solved the problem with the prop tanks uh I don't but we did have confirmed uh I believe it was yesterday that this is more of like a Franken Vega uh they're using multiple pieces of multiple rockets in it so uh that is what they are doing here today Denise is watching from Halifax Nova Scotia USA uh TOS all is from Clon in Florida with the Gators jsw web is in New York City we got Marty and Piney Flats Tennessee Carolyn is in Perth Western Australia uh Omnia is in Sudan welcome Aiden's in Manchester New Hampshire armored is in D Rock Tempe Arizona for karks welcome Kurt is in Manchester UK for those over in Australia uh definitely stay tuned next summer uh spring summer we'll uh post more but we are planning a trip out there uh next fall so we'll definitely have to range some meetups uh around Australia and New Zealand if you're just joining us though you are looking at a live view of the launch site at the French Guana where we are counting down to an estimated targeted liftoff of 9:50 p.m. eastern time that is what that countdown clock in the right corner of your screen is for this is the final Flight of the class of Vega rocket flying The Sentinel 2C payload to low earth or not even to low earth orbit Sun synchronous orbit excuse me so used to watching starlings um this is the 23rd and final Flight of the classic Vega and we'll see Vega C take over here in the future you can keep sending in your questions in the chat by taking us at the Launchpad and we'll work on answering those live if you haven't yet though take a moment hit that like button share the stream invite people to join us as well and for our members stay tuned we're going to be putting out some exciting opportunities where you guys can have some input uh on the new studio setup up but also maybe get your uh names or different things uh here uh for different support levels in supporting the new studio expansion jsw Productions asked how is Florida Zach uh it's great it's Florida it's it's Florida the last week of August so it's hot uh and we're uh of course uh lots to move in lots to build but also being smart making sure you know we're ready if there is a hurricane uh we're in hurricane season this is when it starts to pick up so making sure we have those emergency supplies as well uh nothing on the track right now but couple things out in the Atlantic that you know 30 40% chance they could develop so better to be safe than sorry but love being down here uh we've seen two launches so far one uh both from a little bit further away one from the house uh I can literally sit here in my studio chair at my main studio and look out my window and watch launches from all of the pads here in Florida and that is one of the coolest things to get to say that I can lean back in my chair and just open my door in my room and watch launches so uh it's really really cool our doors rattle like the VAB during a launch as well I'll see if I can capture that um so it's it's it's a childhood dream to be down here and it's really cool and that's only thanks to your guys' generous support that we're able to do this uh expand our coverage this way and be down here to bring you full coverage of the Artemis program Starship eventually coming to Florida new Glenn's getting ready to launch who knows what else is going to come from here we got Stokes space Maybe relativity maybe fa Firefly we got rocket lab working on their new vehicle just up the coast I mean it's a day and a half up the coast but it's still there uh Aiden's asking if they hold can they still go that is a great question let me make sure I verify the window we have here today I know sometimes we get the window sometimes we don't and I want to make sure I have it correct I hadn't seen a window time given um the last I looked at so un unlikely at this point um when you're launching the sun synchronous you generally have an instantaneous launch window lots of people tuning in we got John from Nottingham and Maryland welcome great to have you here Aiden is in Alabama we got Frank from Los Angeles Matthews in Minnesota we got Ken in soola Shola Pennsylvania sorry if I said that wrong Eric's in Minnesota Patrick is in uh Brio Bridge Louisiana sorry if I said that wrong adicha is in India welcome great having you all tuning in here there keep sending in your comments and questions we are expecting them to begin their live coverage here uh in about 5 minutes time is when we expect to start getting actual updates in from uh the European Space Agency via their live broadcast but we do have this live view of the pad which we're grateful for to be able to see uh the uh beautiful little Vega rocket there out on the pad ready to fly from the French Giana flaw perspectives watching from t great to see you Mike's in Columbus we got Terry in penrith Australia Cincinnati Ray is watching in Costa Rica Chris is in Colorado Eagle ey is in Boise Idaho and Roger is in Great Falls Montana spent many Summers down in Great Falls and uh that whole area Callis spell and absolutely love being down there haven't been down in a while definitely need to make a trip back uh Ginger is it cheaper for you to live in Florida compared to Canada um because I don't have to spend ridiculous amounts of money to fly to watch rocket launches yes um dayto day no uh day-to-day is actually pretty it's quite a bit more expensive um but that's also because I'm still using Canadian finances uh but uh we'll uh be working to have some more stuff set up down here uh for it but yeah basically prices in Canada are the same as us prices so the prices look the same on the Shelf the only thing is a dollar here in the states is costing me like $135 uh in Canadian currency so uh working to adjust to that and just make sure you know we're being smart on our spending but you know love a coupon love a sale love a buy one get one free a good BOGO can't go wrong I feel like we almost get those with starlinks these days you know get one rocket launch get two free um so we're working around it um we had a lot of equipment already so that's really helpful getting us set up that uh we haven't had to buy a lot Studio wise um is more than housewise uh setting up a new home so uh that's uh always exciting getting to pick furniture and everything and uh have our TP crew getting together more as well we have an amazing team down here on the Space Coast uh excited for you guys to get to meet them more see them more in memor only videos and uh get to know them as we expand our coverage bring out new shows and we uh had us little bit of a planning chat last couple of days and there's a lot of stuff coming between now and the end of the year and we're super excited including two new apps yeah I said two and that's not all we're working on more uh but we'll have two apps coming out in the very near future and they will be both on iPhone and Android this time they are in beta testing internally as we speak uh and we'll be coming out to members uh of certain levels in the near future so make sure if you're members to stay tuned for that over on uh the Discord uh Kerbal any updates from RFA progress on new first stage already nothing yet they're going to have to do a full investigation so uh I don't expect to hear anything from them for I mean we might hear more I wouldn't expect to see anything I wouldn't expect to see them on a pad this month or this month or this year I think it's being pushed to next year uh we are counting down 21 minutes 45 seconds and counting till launch great to have so many of you tuning in here today e says love your channel Zach thanks so much I appreciate that Fel says I'm so jealous that you have an office view I've always wanted to see a live launch it's on my bucket list it's definitely something to do for Real uh I'm not sure where in the world you are specifically but if you can ever make it out to the Space Coast it's probably the most financially easy ones to do because if you come for three or four days unless SpaceX blows up a rocket um you're guaranteed like two launches in like a four five day time frame so it's really awesome for people that want to see launches so you don't have to come for like a month anymore you can uh come and see quite a few very quickly um but uh yeah it's a definitely a childhood dream come true and then even just a work dream get that this is my job uh is uh really really really cool and really special uh Patrick is the countdown on the upper right of the screen correct yes that is to the t0 that we have from the European Space Agency targeting 9:50 p.m. Eastern or 20 minutes from now uh we should have an update from the European Space Agency here in about 30 seconds or so uh and then we'll be able to sync our t0 uh with theirs and as I say that they get ready to kick off their live coverage if you're joining us here welcome my name is Zach I'm the found host here at the Launchpad and you are joining us for our live launch coverage of Sentinel 2C and the final classic Vega flight from the French Guana the European Space Agency is getting ready to begin their live coverage and we're going to listen in but we'll be answering more of your questions so send those in the comments by taking us at the Launchpad And subscribe to never miss another live launch coverage let's listen in to Aron group and the European space agency and the road to Mars as we count down 19 minutes 45 seconds and counting to launch of 2C from the Guana space flight center in the French Guana France hello there and a very big welcome as you join us live at the Launchpad here at the European Spaceport in French Guana we are launching Sentinel 2ca it's a satellite to monitor our planet for the European space agency and the European commission and it's up there inside what we call the fairing about 15 kilometers or from the pad is the mission control center teams in here going through final preparations inside what we call the Fishbowl that protective glass there I'm Katie Haswell and uh I'm here in the mission control in the commentary box with Damian valade from Aran space thanks for being with us Daman great to be here Katie uh we are launching the Light Lift at Vega today yeah yeah and VGA is the first generation in the VGA series uh today it's this last flight before passing the B to the upgraded version veg C indeed more on that to come but first let's go over to the flight desk now and to the CEO of Aran space Stefan Israel hi stepan thanks very much indeed for taking the time to chat with us how are the final operations going everything is going very well all the parameters are now green you know that to make the launch tonight we need the bases to be ready and the bis is ready we need the satellite to be ready satellite Sentinel 2C which is ready and we need our launcher to be ready after the final preparation and the launcher is ready good to hear and this is an important uh important Mission isn't it Stefan for Aran space yes for sure because this is the fifth satellite we launch for the Copernicus constellation the fif Sentinel after four successful launches and you know that in Aran space we are very motivated to use space for a better life on Earth second this is a satellite we launch for Isa and for the European commission and our mission is also to give Europe with an autonomous access to space and last but not least this is our 202 Vega the last of the first Vega generation series indeed and uh we're getting close now to launch of the last Vega uh what can we expect to happen yes so we are going to lift off at 1050 p.m. local time we are going to lift off towards the north we will have the separation of the three stages and after 6 minutes a little more we will have the initi of the AUM per stage and after the second initi of the AUM per stage we will have the separation of the satellite Sentinel 2C at an altitude of 775 kilom and after a mission duration of 57 minutes fantastic well thank you very much indeed Stefan and uh best wishes now for the rest of the countdown thank you so Vega on her pad Standing Tall about 30 m tall actually you can see just on the top left of the the boards there in the the screens here in the mission control center scheduled to lift off in uh 16 and 1 half minutes time the countdown there on the top right hand side of your screen um uh Vega is uh going to be be lifting off as I said in about 16 minutes Daman what happens after that so Vega is composed of four sections we call them stages their names roughly match the mass of their propellent in tons so when the p8 engine ignites VGA heads North and we can see its flight path actually on the right hand side there um so the first stage will provid thrust for about 2 minutes and it will then be separated once empty the second stage Z 23 will take over for about 2 minutes and keep on increasing V speed then the third stage call Z 9 will burn for about 3 minutes and at the very beginning of this phase the fairing will be jettisoned as we don't need it anymore to prct the satellite indeed it has passed through the dense lower atmosphere as you guess the zephirine is then separated as well and up next is uh an important step so we've got the third uh stage separation and uh coming up is the first uh ignition of the upper stage the aom which is rather special because it uses liquid propolin it will shut down in a bit more uh a bit more than 10 minutes later we will then have done a half uh uh we will have half an hour of a ballistic face which will lead us over Australia where the a second ignition will be carried out for 1 minute shortly after Sentinel Toc will be separated on a sun synchronous orbit which means that the satellite will always be in sync with the sun allowing for consistent linting conditions for the areas observed and the last step of this vv2 24 mission is a f boost to reduce altitude and avoid leing debris orbiting Earth very important and Sentinel 2C is part of the world's most advanced Earth observation system it's a program called cernus under the leadership of the European Union where the European Space Agency is a co-founder and manages its space component day in and day out the Sentinel satellites monitor our planet giving reliable and upto-date information yeah the Wen PA it's uh BAS basically twins in space monitoring land and Coastal Waters uh Sentinel 2A and B already in space 2C is going to replace 2 2A to continue the service and replenish the constellation indeed so let's take a closer look now at Sentinel [Music] 2C and if you're just joining us welcome here to the Launchpad 13 minutes 22 seconds and counting till launch are on Space playing some of their beautiful copywritten music uh but we'll listen back into their mission control following this video there so we come down to just over 13 minutes in count and we're going to continue answering your guys' comments and questions we had a great run through there of the flight profile uh for today's Sentinel 2C and the classic the final Flight of the classic Vega rocket we got lots of people tuning in from all over the world and we're glad to have you all here uh Tony says hubby and I are watching from San Diego welcome we got uh herbay in Southern California welcome we got Vella v Vella sorry if I'm saying that wrong in South Africa it's 3:00 a.m. so thanks for staying up for this and being here with us Pamela's in Oregon great to have you here with us tonight we got plow in hum in Louisiana great to have you here jarno was connecting to us from Italy we're glad to have you here as well if you haven't yet though take a moment hit the like button it's free to do so really does help us out share out the stream invite people to join us for the final Flight of the classic Vega we'll see Vega C hopefully back out on the pad early next year uh as the Aron space and Esa work to uh upgrade their program to Aron 6 and Vega C from the classic Vega and Aron 5 uh V5 s AR space and ham radio you have a lot of interesting hobbies yeah my grandfather was a ham radio operator so uh I think I got into some of the space stuff because of ham radio because I remember very clearly uh at uh 5 or 6 years old talking to the space uh shuttle and the space station directly not through NASA uh from our house uh from actually the room that became the TLP studio 25 years later 20 years later uh same room so uh really cool to get to do that now as a job and career get to talk to the space station more frequently but uh focus on school and other things so I need to get my license uh renewed fortunately I let it expire so I had to go through the testing for it again and but I'd love to get back into uh some of the ham radio you know Moon bounces and everything it's truly incredible get to who you can talk to around the world if you know what you're doing coming down to just 11 minutes and Counting till launch again share out the stream invite people to join us Jim thank you so much for the uh $2 there appreciate it we're going to listen back into uh road to space with uh Aron SP and Esa as we count down to launch continue sending in those questions in the chat by taking us at the Launchpad here we go the classic final flight of Vega for Global Food insecurity and they can also help in Ur urban planning decision making during emergencies or understanding our Coastal water which is very important as we Face demand for water yes indeed and of course Sentinal 2 se's traveling on board the light launch Vaga as we said earlier um it was designed primarily to carry small sat satellites like Sentinel 2C uh Earth observation and scientific payloads to different orbits close to Earth and today is the last flight for the first generation base model so it's kind of important isn't it that's right we launched the first Vega from the Spaceport 12 years ago so today is the 22nd launch and next we end over to the upgraded version vacy um the Via program is a great example of teamwork between 10 European countries yes and of course the prime is Ario the prime contractor for Vega and vegacy and Aran space operates it uh Vega has delivered some very important spacecraft over those 12 years so I think this is a very good time for us to take a look back at the highlights of her career e e e e it does indeed the Adventure Continues with Vega C which is of course an upgraded version yeah Vega C can carry up to 2.3 tons of payloads as compared to V's 1.5 tones uh thanks to the two upgrad it solid propulsion stages it also features an enhanced upper stage a new Fairing and updated uh ground uh infrastructures but for now uh let's add some good vibes to the first uh uh via for its last flight first gen via yeah indeed Good Vibes coming your way first gen V Vega um so uh right now uh this kind of point before launch 6 and a half minutes you can see the screens here in the mission control center on the left hand side everyone's looking at those B towards the green status panels the fact that they're green is a good sign they're showing us the go no go status of all the systems across the base yeah it's a bit like a pre-flight checklist for an aircraft so the panels are showing the health of the three main systems rocket and launch pad Ensemble laer the satellite and what we call the range uh so that includes Telemetry Radars the weather and safety and for uh no I can tell you weather is green so that's great that's the last check 10 minutes check whether well that's really good to hear and the teams monitoring all of this are in the launch control center or CDL as it's known here we can see them here um what are they doing so they are protected inside a concrete black house uh this is where we get the rocket and it's bad ready for Lift half right now some of the teams are watching over these final important operations in the countdown others are doing actual operations and switching systems on and off so you can see a door at the end of the room this leads to another room where the technical authorities are uh they are constantly monitoring the systems in real time if anything seems have track they communicate and troubleshoot the Frontline teams here at the G Space Center are supported by in of a team of experts in Europe that's right they are in Kifer they are in near near Rome yeah they are uh the Avio technical support unit they are also following the launch in real time it means more brain on the job and it's good for solving issues as fast as possible you can never have too many brains on the job of course so um all very focused of course right now uh 4 minutes and 37 seconds to launch we're coming up to the beginning of the next phase which is the synchronized sequence or the automatic sequence the last four minutes of the countdown this is a crucial phase the rocket will become progressively automated during this time computers manage an impressive list of operations and the team in launch control are closely monitoring them all I couldn't hear there but I think we have announced the beginning of the synchronized sequence uh so we'll be hearing the voice of the range operations manager throughout the launch of course we have a fixed launch time today we don't have a launch window so uh teams have been working here at the Guana Space Center for two months now to get the rocket and the satellite ready for today we call this preparation process the launch campaign Damian what's been happening during that time so most and if you're just joining us welcome here to the Launchpad L minus 3 minutes 10 seconds and counting till launch of the final classic Vega launching from the elv at the Guana Space Center in French Guana France which is not actually technically in France it's at the tip of South America but it's a French territory and that is where they are launching from here today now under 3 minutes and Counting Everything Green across the board for today's flight Vega is go Sentinel 2C is go the launch complex is go because we're launching into a sun synchronous orbit today's launch is an instantaneous launch window and uh it's great to see some of these uh footage of how it made its Journey out to the launch site the incredible new Aron 6 on board uh canopy ship is actually here in uh Cape Canaveral at Port Canaveral as it brought an emis 3 uh element over uh from Europe over the last couple of weeks so amazing to get to see that ship traveling all over the world as part of this next era of space exploration as we come down to the final 2 minutes in the count we're going to listen back into uh Arian space and Esa mission control for the final minutes of the count but let's see that go no go from all of you in the chat if you're not a member yet hit that go uh join button to get access to our TLP launch emotes for just 99 cents a month L minus 1 minute 53 seconds in counting we will rejoin mission commentary once they wrap up this video with some beautiful I'm sure copywritten music on it as we count down the final 1 minute and 40 seconds to launch of classic Vega completing launching for the 23rd time 20 successes three failures and here we go T-minus 90 seconds in counting till its final flight go Sentinel 2C and go classic Vega it's to lift off right now all the panels are green as you mentioned Damian the weather's looking good it's uh been very hot here in French Guana so let's uh listen to the range operations manager right we are one minute to launch we're live at the European Spaceport in French Guyana for the launch of Sentinel 2C our very best wishes to all the teams go Sentinel Toc e w they're off Sentinel 2C and Vega are blazing a trail across the equatorial Skies here over Europe's Spaceport in French Guana heading north out over the Atlantic towards the Caribbean islands burning the first three stages the first stage of course burning now getting us away from the gravity of the earth Vega really shoots into the sky Damian doesn't she yeah it does it does and we could feel the rumble tumble here in the commentary cabin so um the p80 deliver is a powerful TR thrust about 200 and 30 tons equivalent to twice twice its weight uh it just results in a very rapid acceleration um so the first stage uh its mass in propolin is 89 tons and it is made of a special material called filament W carbon epoxy and we're looking here at Fantastic images um and separation there of the p80 first stage and switch on of the second stage the z23 so at this point in time we've lost about 2/3 of our weight and we're hearing that the propulsion is nominal so and the trajectory is nominal and of course the idea is to get rid of mass when it's no longer needed as soon as each solid stage has used its propellent yes we jet in it uh so that's why we split the rocket into to different stages to avoid dragging unnecessary Mass into space and we're burning the z23 3 second stage Z for zapiro which is a type of wind a gentle and favorable West Wind it is often associated with uh bringing sprit and good weather uh it very much aligns with the goal of the VGA launcher which aims at providing reliable and efficient access to space so Kat it's a poetic note to the idea of a smooth and successful Journey and the fairing at the front of the rocket there you can see Sentinel 2C inside and uh we're getting news there that the end of the coming towards the end of the um burning of the z23 our altitude there on the top right hand side 113 kilomet above the Earth and bottom the vitess is our speed traveling at nearly 4 km per second SE separation there of the second stage and uh there's a a short delay before we then get the ignition of the third stage that's to avoid any collisions up in space absolutely so and we have separation now of the fairing that's been jettisoned we don't need it anymore and if you look at the altitude we 30 kilm above Earth We're hearing that the propulsion is nominal and so is the trajectory everything going according to plan we can see Sentinel 2C Damian for the first time it's that gold structure at the front yes so we can see the 3.4 M long satellite attached to the AUM upper stage so the gold part is a fmal insulation it was uh specifically uh designed in the ' 50s to protect satellites from the extreme temperatures in space and since then it has been it has been developed for all kinds of uses here on Earth uh that includes emergency blankets like the one you might have in your car well I don't actually have one in my car but I know the ones you mean they're very crinkly and noisy um and you can see there we lifted off from the Gana Space Center the Gallo was the tracking station here and now we're using San je Maroni and if you look at the picture there you can see that there's just one solar panel today yeah uh it is to maximize reliability and efficiency while meeting the satellites power requirements so satellites must be as lightweight as possible as you know and every kilo counts every little helps and so know the speed uh the speed should go just a bit under 8 kilm per second so we are heading toward that and everything is going according to plan everything is nominal um these images on the right hand side are the the computer generated images they're kind of a 3D animation of what's been planned right now in space and they're pretty well as close as we can get to real time imagery aren't they yes so our mission analysis uh teams plan a precise set of events and we put that in uh a computer uh and it shows us the behavior that they have predicted uh that including or orientation with respect to the Earth and the Sun we put a lot of effort into it to make it true to life the satellite is modeled from uh 3D uh plans obviously for the textures of the different parts of the satellite we use uh photos to try and reproduce oh they really look like for instance the thermal insulation that we just mentioned and they it's really useful to have those images because of course the problem with space is that it's in space so you actually can't see what's happening getting close now to separation there we go of the third stage that's been confirmed and so we've got away from Earth in 6 and 1 half minutes this is the um speed of course that we're traveling eight nearly well 7 and a half coming up to kilometers per second so we can really start the next phase of the flight now Damian our flight path takes us up north um we're heading up over the Caribbean towards the east coast of Canada we're crossing the Arctic and back down over southeast Asia to the West Coast of Australia and that's where we're going to be releasing our satellite why North so the satellite will be in a fixed position over the Earth north to south with the Earth rotating below it imagine Katie you're are peeling an orange Strip by stripe I'm just going to stop you there we've had confirmation of acquisition of signal at Bermuda so yes stripe by stripe yes um so uh The Sentinel to peel very wide Stripes each saave is nearly 300 kilm so they can image our entire planet in 5 days amazing and we've got uh the switch on time now this is the scheduled moment to switch on the engine of the aom upper stage we have that confirmed uh this is an important moment actually in the flight trajectory is nominal we're hearing we've really started the next phase now of this part of the journey because the aoom or aam has taken the wheel and its job is to deliver our passenger to its required orbit yes it must be very precise we must releasee Sentinel to see an exactly the right injection orbit nearly 800 kilm uh altitude with the correct inclination which is uh 98.5 de but first we have to get there so the first AUM boost is for reaching an intermediate elliptical orbit after that stage uh will cut off and aoom means attitude and verer upper module a bit of a mouthful absolutely so in engineering a verier is a Precision Tool it refers to the Precision required of the aom which can deliver satellites at different orbits so it needs to perform satellite fine pointing before separating it that is why we need liquid propulsion it allows for more Precision Maneuvers than powder uh because powder is more suited to provide raw power indeed uh one of the features of the avum upper stage is that it can actually restart its engine and uh for Vega the first generation model this one that we're using today that's up to five times but for Vega C it's even more isn't it and and I know this is important but just can you explain to people why it allows the aom to deploy different payloads into separate orbits much like an elevator stopping at multiple floors it's a big advantage of the Vega series uh not all launchers can actually reignite their upper stage so today there is only one separation for One customer but for so launches it's common to adjust the orbit between two or more separations so vacy has the impressive ability to reignite its engine up to eight times this allows us to reach up to three different orbits with vacy and that's a very very important when you've got different passengers wanting to get off the bus at different bus stops so here we are 10 minutes into our flight we are 310 km High we've traveled nearly 3,000 M uh kilometers across the planet if you were to draw a straight line along the Earth and our speed nearly oh you'll have to excuse me folks I've got a bit of a cough yeah so uh basically uh we will uh be no picking up the signal in getino uh in Quebec Canada uh in about just a few uh seconds we are waiting for confirmation indeed and if we look at the left hand side of our screen we can see the uh planned flight path with the white cross is the actual position of the rocket so we just uh acquired gtino hello gtino hello ladies and gentlemen boys and girls in Latin in gatino in Canada so the speed uh is 7 point uh roughly 7.5 km/ second that's the equivalent of 27,000 km and we're looking here at the teams at the CVI yes absolutely so they are based on the monang it's on a hill at just a few kilometers away from us so uh the quick look Telemetry uh or cve in French team they depict the current status and any significant findings from the Telemetry data the steps ensure that everyone involved understands the situation and potential issues uh they pass on the info to the range operations manager the DDO in the control room and the range operations manager is responsible for announcing the confirmation of major events such as stage separations engine cut off and successful payload deployments so they're doing very very important work there absolutely and everything is still nominal now you might have noticed the logo for the city of Seva in Spain on the fairing of the rocket and that's because this year Seville has taken over the presidency of the Aran 2024 community of cities in partnership with Airbus defense and space it was set up in 1998 to strengthen cooperation between people involved in the space industry let's hear now from the mayor of ceville Jose Lis Sun [Music] uh manager to today but Daman and I are receiving the information directly from the CVI who uh are getting the Telemetry uh from the tracking station so we're giving you our confirmations uh that way and Daman is able to confirm things absolutely back to um our satellite it's an important one our world is changing the climate is warming the population is increasing and cities are expanding and some of the biggest challenges are meeting the growing demand for food and water keeping people safe and forming strategies to address climate change and looking down from space is vital for planning a sustainable future which is why cernus along with Europe's satellite positioning system Galileo are key components of the European unions Space Program Damian let's just talk a little bit now about some of the applications for the information from The Sentinel 2 satellites yes so we talked earlier about how uh important The Sentinel twos are in giving new insight into the world's vegetation that's important for land use and food production for instance as say you are a farmer you might use satellite data to decide how much water or fertilizer to use um it can also be very much useful in planning how to respond in emergency uh such as Floats or volcanic eruptions so for example you might remember uh the fires in gree this summer we can actually see them on the screen uh the white fire near aens so a massive one erupted uh this uh on August 12th and this Sentinel 2 image uh shows uh shows it so you see um it uses a natural color combined with shortwave infrared to highlight the active fire fronts in red and the burnt areas in dark brown the fire driven by strong winds produced a smoke cloud extending over 300 kilm towards Libya covering parts of Athens absolutely terrifying and The Sentinel twos can also help manage Water Resources as we mentioned earlier and not just for drinking but also for agriculture energy and sanitation and that's because they can measure the health and changes to water bodies and that's whether they're lakes in land for example or on the coast mhm yeah you can see here some uh Coral bleaching in Florida so in July 2023 just a year ago record high sea temperatures were recorded around Florida and they SAR more than 2° cels Celsius above normal causing widespread Coral bleaching in the Florida Keys so this Sentinel to image um shows the affected area near Islam Morada thanks to data from cernas scientists can monitor these R Rising temperatures and their impact on the oceans I'm hearing there that um all the parameters are normal um interestingly The Sentinel to can also help in predicting malaria outbreaks but it can also help us understand animal populations yeah you will never guess what's the last image uh it's a penguin Colony discovered in Antarctica so the Sentinel two satellites uh with a resolution of 10 m per pixel offers uh a detail view of our planet leading to discoveries like this new penguin colonies um so it's an image from November 2016 uh Colony near C Gates Antarctica and it was not detected uh funnily Enough by the Penguins themselves but by the large brown dropping stains also called guano that they left on the ice so it help scientists track these populations who'd have known that penguin poo would be so useful coming up to the next phase now Daman yeah absolutely so you can see uh we just uh switched up the uh uh engine um new that's coming up at uh 18:30 here we go that's what it looks like up there yeah we've got confirmation confirmation yeah indeed so why are we switching the engine off now so uh the AUM Place Sentinel to see on an eliptical orbit the shape of an oval if you will and know the altitude of the launcher is naturally Rising so when reaching the top the maximal altitude of the elliptical orbit the aen will will reignite to circularize the orbit as uh at its final altitude let's talk now let's talk now about space team Europe uh it's in a mission like this it's always the result of years of teamwork across Europe and um you know relationships are made and friendships are made Space Team Europe is an initiative led by the European space agency and it aims to bring people working in the field of space under the same umbrella with no barriers or boundaries between companies e so we're going to keep the Telemetry on the screen for you and the 3D animation and we'll be back in about 23 minutes time uh just before separation of Sentinel 2 SE yeah so if I were you I would stay tuned because the most important part is coming up it is indeed the separation and releasing of our satellite so we'll be back just before 1140 that uh here in Kuro that's 3:40 in the morning greenish meantime and about 4:40 Central European Time see you then for [Music] for for for e [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] for e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for e [Music] e e e e [Music] e [Music] [Music] for e [Music] e for [Music] hello again welcome back it's good to have you with us for part two of our live broadcast coming to you from the European Spaceport the edge of the Amazon rainforest in French Guana we're 50 minutes or so into the launch of Sentinel 2 C it's an earth observation satellite for the European space agency and the EC uh you saw it there lifting off from the pad here at the Gana Space Center very beautiful images of the Vega launcher right now Sentinel 2C is hurtling through space attached to what remains of the rocket on its way to the orbit above Earth uh just under 800 uh kilometers about 700 75 where we will be releasing it yeah so that's actually a 7.4 kilm per second and uh that's our speed now so we lifted up at 1050 uh Kuru time it's the last figure so at 7:36 uh we switched on the aom uh engine for a 10-minute burn we had a bistic phase for 36 minutes uh it's still uh ongoing and in few uh minutes uh the avom is uh scheduled to uh switch its engine back on um in 4 minutes and we'll separate Sentinel 2C shortly after and on the left hand side up there on the top of the screen is the trajectory the white cross the planned sorry the plann trajectory the white cross is the actual uh launcher the position of the launcher the altitude on the right we're actually um at nearly 800 kilm 79 2 we've traveled 2,00 18,000 nearly 19,000 kilometers across the Earth if you were to draw a straight line and our speed at the moment we're traveling at 7.42 km/ second so a reminder if you're just joining us that Sentinel 2C is going to replace Sentinel 2A to continue the important work of Europe's Sentinel 2 satellites they're looking down from space to help us better understand our planet and they have some very clever technology on board right Damen yes so the T he's just telling us that we have acquisition of signal at the new noria tracking station yes that's great news so the telescope and mirrors are made from a silicon carbide a motor oil first pioneered by Airbus it ensures High stability and minimal Distortion from temperature changes uh it basically results in uh exceptionally clear images so this quality is just unmatched in its category so each Sentinel 2 satellite collects 1.5 terab of data per day after onboard compression so that's that's a lot uh counting in 4K movies assuming we are going for a super good quality of 30 GB a movie that means the equivalent in terms of storage of 50 ultra high definition movies that's a lot of movies yeah need a big hard drive to store all of those so we have traveled we lifted off from the northeastern coast of South America and we flew over Canada over the Antarctic back down over southeast Asia and we're now approaching Australia in fact you heard there that we picked up the signal at the tracking station [Music] in and the upper stage is orientating itself to get ready to switch the engine back on Amazing to think that it's only taken us about 53 minutes to get to Australia yeah I mean like you could be flying there from Paris and it would take you 25 hours it would indeed um so new noria tracking station what that's uh just near Perth yes about 1 hour and 30 minutes Drive uh north of Perth so the teams play a crucial uh role there in New northia 2 in supporting fast moving satellites and Rockets uh during the launch and early orbit stages so it supports a variety of uh missions and that includes uh uh of course Aran n viia it provides critical tracking services for deep space missions such as Bey Columbo or the more recently launched uh juice last last year the Jupiter icy moons Explorer or of course exciting Mission yeah definitely so I remember when we were waiting for juice to send its signals through that antenna we were doing an interview with new noria when they picked up Juice's signal we all got emotional there in Jupiter because it meant that Juice's Journey was really beginning yeah it must have been I can just imagine we have a switch on of the second boost for the aam upper stage it switched its engine on again the all going according to plan all nominal why are we switching the engine on now so right now we are currently on an elliptical orbit the shape of an egg if you will after the first burn that lasted 10 minutes the AUM and Sentinel to see uh where actually put on that elliptical orbit and we've now reached the desired altitude and we want to stay there uh we need to turn into a circular orbit hence we are doing a second burn for about just two minutes uh to circularize our orbit and tell tell us about the Sentinel 2C separation orbit versus this final orbit as it were yeah so it was initially placed uh 11 kilm uh lower than Sentinel 2 a and 2 B uh at nearly 800 kilometers at a lower altitude it orbits Earth slightly faster um over the 38 uh first days it will gradually catch up uh to Sentinel to A and B so once in in position its altitude is raised to match the other two satellites and this maneuver stops drifting uh and it keeps the distance between all three satellite constants next event coming up will be the cutting off of the a we have 20 seconds left of the burn on the aam upper stage that's how it looks up there in space you can see the curvature of the earth and the Thin Blue Line of course the atmosphere of our planet that's all that protects us from space coming up now on aam cut off we have confirmation there second switching off of the aam upper stage confirmed we're on the targeted injection orbit required for Sentinel 2C the separation actually's going to start pretty soon now in a matter seconds and he's telling us that the orbit is completely nominal we can see that Daman beginning of the orientation maneuver getting Sentinel 2 see ready to uh be released onto its orbit yes so the altitude is just uh where it needs to be uh the speed is uh 7.6 kilm per second so it's the same speed as the ISS roughly we have separation there of s to see that's good news we are looking at happy faces in the mission control center here Jupiter Mission Control Center that's uh excellent news here we are looking at the teams in the Fishbowl the operational teams yeah everyone happy in the flight cell and know within the client Parts as well Sentinel 2C on its way now heading out on its own Journey we've delivered it to space and now it's heading out to make its own life and of course the teams at the European space operations center and also at Airbus taking on their baby now and controlling the satellite as it goes through the early operations to commission it Vega having done a good job there and and lifted off operated like clockwork definitely so yes so everything went according to plan so we're going to hopefully hear now from the uh CEO CEO of Aran space Stefan Israel uh Stefan great to have you back with us thanks very much indeed for coming back to chat with us a second time good news we've released the satellite yes it's an excellent news we we have perfectly completed the mission tonight the satellite Sentinel 2C has been separated on the targeted orbit it is a full success tonight this is the fifth Sentinel satellite we deliver successfully and I can tell you we are very grateful to our customers uh the European commission Isa to our partner Airbus satellite manufacturer to our Prime Avio for this great success and uh what's next St F indeed in fact Vega is going to deliver one more time for Copernicus it will be vegasi so the next generation of Vega and now with Isa with AIO we are going to prepare the return to flight of Vega SE and the return to flight of Vegas SE will be once again for a Copernicus satellite it would be Sentinel 1 SE by the end of the year so keep posted absolutely keep posted indeed stepan thank you very much indeed thank you thank you well now we've talked a lot about our satellite Sentinel 2C let's turn our attention now to the people who use the uh information which The Sentinel 2os provide the kernus program currently has more than 750,000 registers registered users that 750,000 people who use the information coming from the satellite and they can be anyone from Farmers and environmentalists to emergency services and journalists just like me receiving press releases in our inbox about the state of the climate for example and uh that information is completely free it's a fantastic service and anybody can use it and I have to tell you I'm very very impressed but it's one thing receiving the data from the satellites it's another thing being able to understand it and uh use it and um that's the job of the cernus program and I'm absolutely delighted to introduce you to us Donar or Donar I think I should be pronouncing it with a better Spanish accent who's joining us now um Uzu you are from the cernus land monitoring uh program you lead the cernus land let me just get this right cernus land Monitoring Service uh which provides information about the land and of course Sentinel 2C is all about the land and and the water um just tell us a little bit more more about well first of all wonderful launch eh yeah that was a wonderful experience I have to say yeah did you see did you go outside and see it with your own eyes I'm still trying to digest it um us tell us a little bit about the kind of people who use in a minute you can tell us about what you use the the information from the satellite for but tell us about people generally who use the information so we have different types of uh users of um Sentinel of Sentinel 2 data we first have this type of people who actually know how to do uh how to produce information um based on on the satellite imagery um and that would be me for instance 20 years ago and then we have those people which is a wider public that do not really know how to process the data and do not really know how to create information on on them and what we do and the on on the Copernicus land monitoring Services we create information based on those satellite Imager information on the in our case on the land cover and also on the on the changes that are appearing the in the in on land and also on biophysical par parameters and and what do you use that information for well we create um different types of uh products um maybe the easiest uh to to imagine for alignment would be um a digital map so to speak but that would be that's far too simple so what we are doing is based on the satellite imagery we analyze it we analyze the time series of the images this is we analyze a lot of images what acquired one after the other and what we infer from them is uh things like uh crop classification we also um make a um analysis of the Tre cover density over a certain area or we are monitoring Inland water and the quality um another one which is I think one of the most intuitive is to give you a kind of cartography of the land cover so what is what can be visible on land and what what does this information actually tell you I mean how how important is it well it's it's really important in our case so the the land monitoring service actually it's it's col by two different entities I am leading it at the European environment agency and then the joint Research Center is leading it at Global level so at the European environment agency we are doing it only Within Europe and this is because one of our main goals is to serve uh different environmental policies what we trying to do um sometimes sucess successfully sometimes not so much is to create information that can serve uh the policy makers to take decisions on how to protect better our environment now Sentinel 2C is replacing Sentinel 2A for anybody who doesn't understand how satellites uh work in terms of providing continual information can you explain why that's important and why we need to have two satellites in this particular uh configuration and why it's important to to replenish the well the uh sorry the constellation I think one one of the one of the biggest added values of Copernicus program it's that it's commitment towards consistency and coherence over time so we are we because we have a purpose in our case which is serving the European policies but it could be other purposes as well in the case you were mentioning before the Emergency Management Service that's also quite a big purpose to to to be able to support uh the the different um um the different administrations that are dealing with a with the uh emergencies it is important to know and to to tell our clients our stakeholders okay this is here and it's going to last and we are going to continue it and it's not going that is not just a proof of concept so to speak this is it is we're hearing the range operations manager there just confirming that the next orientation maneuver is beginning for the um in order to uh for the aam upper stage to perform its third boost which of course will be part of its deorbiting uh program so just coming back to Sentinel 2 uh C and the Sentinel 2os in in general I mean what other projects or applications could benefit from Sentinel 2's data because I know obviously you guys are using it for your specific purposes but there are quite a lot of other applications and even some surprise ones aren't there yes I mean in in fact there we are only doing um so we are not doing all that could be done with the Sentinel to because it's maybe in some cases it's not our mandate um but I think that the for The Wider public the the possibilities are endless I have to say uh I've been in the business uh for 20 years now and and um when when the Sentinels were launched when we started receiving the images the whole paradig of how we work with the Earth observation chain so we came from just using a single image maybe two at most uh that were actually taken up to 80% of the cost of the project um and now we have the whole this whole time series uh to to take advantage of it um so we could think about potentially um monitoring of environmental crims is one of the things that lately is starting to to be really um uh on top of in really high high in the agenda um we are already monitoring the status of the vegetation across the whole across whole Europe our colleagues at the J Research Center are creating now for the first time land cover map at 10 m for the whole globe with a a very very high um uh repeat time so a very high update frequency and all these things are only possible because Sentinel 2 is there for us it sounds like this is a very very important mission for you which is uh which is not just important for you it's important for all of us on Earth um I wanted to ask you a little bit more about disaster management um because we heard earlier from Damian um was talking to us uh showing us a few slides and some of the work that ensal uh twos have been doing how how important is it for disaster management and and making decisions making better decisions when dealing with emergencies yeah I mean one of the the biggest out values here is that we we have an an updated image every 5 days so this gives a lot of uh very powerful information to the Civil protections that are working in the field to see how is for instance a forest fire how is it evolving uh you can see it almost near real time in a way um you can see also um a volcano how how does it evolve and this is all information that is very very important for the for the Civil protections to make sure that everyone is stays safe and I guess because you are using the information from the satellites you must really have a big input do you into how the satellites are are created and some of the the work that they do I mean how much influence do you have well uh the European environment agency we are we are indeed one of part of the stakeholders that uh helped the uh Isa Define the the sentinent to because we are a monitoring land and therefore our requirements are um graciously taken into consideration of course yes very graciously that's that's good to hear let's talk a little bit about how we use the information now I did mention earlier that I do get the press releases from the cernus uh satellites into my inbox on my emails um but I mean obviously there are lots of different people using it but I think what's really astounding is that it's free to anybody to use and I I believe I'm right in saying that the quality of the data which is produced by cernus is so high and so relevant um that it's really transformed the Earth observation industry and I know that you can access it through something called the cernus data space ecosystem is that right yes Copernicus space data ecosystem indeed it's it's going to be the center caliz in all the data produced by the cernic services and and how do you how do you use it how do you access that well it's we are currently actually uh in the land monitoring service is currently migrating the data to the cdsse um which is and and this I have to say has been also a change um when we when the Sentinels went up um is not is not only about how much information we have we also have U much bigger volumes of data as well and that also entailed that we needed to change how we serve our users and how the users can access the data and that is key for the correct uptake of our product I guess really I think as Europeans we probably need to be very very proud don't we of the cernus system it's it's quite extraordinary it is extraordinary and I think we should all be and we can and we should be very proud of what has been achieved uh through the Copernicus program it is amazing that we were able to build this um biggest earth observation program uh in the world I feel uh a part a very very small part of the engine I have to say and seeing today Sentinel 2 see go up it was amazing because you see how you see the future so somehow well tell us more about the future well it's it's exciting moments right now because we are shaping the the how will the service evolve in the next years from 20 2028 onwards um and what we are receiving we are at this moment having a lot of conversations with our stakeholders asking our colleagues in different digs how could we serve better their purposes and it's it's really exciting I know it's not only about the Sentinels it's also about all the other missions that Isa is uh is working on or is uh through the co contribution to missions and it's it's really an exciting moment uh for all of us I would say indeed and um watching the Vaga launcher lift off I'm sure you felt the vibrations wow that was amazing I I have to say I I was not expecting to get so emotional let's put it that way we had a former colleague who used to call the Call It The Rumble in the Jungle as the rocket flies over because you really can actually feel the vibrations of the rocket in your chest indeed usway thank you so very much for uh joining us and sharing your thoughts it's been really fascinating to hear thank you very much for giving me the opportunity thank you thank you very much indeed so we are now one minute uh coming up to uh sorry 13 1 hour and 13 minutes uh coming up up to 1 hour and 14 minutes into our flight and I am seeing clapping that's a good sign that means that we have acquired the signal from the satellite so and we have confirmation that the satellite Sentinel 2C has called home via the trol tracking station who's picked up the signal from the satellite and communicated it to us here so that's fantastic news Sentinel 2C is delivered and uh has sent its first signal home so we are now hoping to hear from some of the representatives of the major organizations involved in today's launch daman's back with me Daman this is great news we've got the signal absolutely I'm just thrilled uh I was over excited when I saw the signal uh coming up from Troll and here we can see some very happy faces and uh the Sentinel uh satellites are a collaboration uh between the European Space Agency the European commission and Industry as we heard earlier the the industrial side involves people from 60 different companies and I think across something like 13 countries so it's a really is a massive big effort of teamwork and we're going to hear from the representatives of those uh three entities who have been watching the launch here from the Mission Control Center and um here we are are in our commentary box daman's back with me I'm pleased to say and uh yep we're just okay I think everybody's ready so we can now talk to them so I'd like to introduce you and I'm absolutely delighted to introduce you to uh Christopher uh gatz who's the director of satellite navigation Earth observation the European commission uh r g harich who's the head of institutional satellite programs at Airbus defense in space and Julio Renzo CEO of Ario but first of all let's go to simoneta kayy who is the director of Earth observation at the European Space Agency simoneta you must be absolutely delighted congratulations yes we are absolutely delighted thrilled about this successful launch of Sentinel Toc Copernicus program is just another milestone in the super history of this program under the leadership of the European Union and after 10 years the first launch of the first Sentinel we look forward this continuity of the day data it's going to be great for users after the commissioning phase of course first three months we will provide data to users in the domain of land disaster marine and much more also methane monitoring crop monitoring Agriculture and you name it so we really look forward this new element of the Copernicus family it's another add-on to the super history of providing an infrastructure space one to support the challenges of climate environment and sustainability at this stage I would only like to thank our main partner which is the European commission it's a program under their leadership we have many more satellites to launch in the coming years we have already up and running eight of those and of course I'd like to also thank a special thank you to the member states of Visa we have quite a few here today with us in kururu uh and uh last but not least of course to Ariana pavio they manag to take the satellite into the right orbit and to Industry this is in fact a collaboration where industry plays a key role and elas defense and space help build the satellite with 60 companies in Europe so a great collaboration of Europe Europe at work and last but not least I really would like to pay a tribute to the team the Fantastic Team of the earth observation Sentinel 2 project for their motivation their professionalism and really looking forward the next step of this great program simula thank you so much and indeed uh Kristoff it really simul is absolutely right it's been a fantastic uh product of teamwork hasn't it yes uh indeed I would like to thank all the partners who made this launch a very successful launch today Isa of course our major partner here in this Copernicus program aanas AIO n and of course satellite manufacturer Aus I would like to thank them and uh I think it shows when Europe works together we can do really great things and I think today tonight is really a proove of that a Flawless launch everything worked perfectly well so I'm really very very happy and it's also as we are in times of Olympics like a relay race a relay race between relay between the last VGA and the next VGA C you heard about it it will be end of the year and it's also a relay between Sentinel 2C and Sentinel 1C which we will launch on the VGA sea so it's really in Olympic terms it's a wonderful night today handing on the Baton uh rudiger um what's coming up next so um please allow me first also to say a big uh thank you to the entire Sentinel 2 team which is composed of our colleagues from Isa as well as from industry and to the lead of Airbus and also congratulations and thank you to Arian B and Avio for delivering safely the satellite into orbit um the next step now will be the early operations phase under the lead of isok the European space operations center in dad followed by the commissioning and all this last approximately until early uh December and then we go into the nominal operations phase and the that's very exciting and um over now to uh to Julio Julio that we've seen the last that was the last of the first generation Vegas now we're looking forward to Vega SE well yes you're right this is an emotional night for us uh first of all um let me thank the European commission for the trust in our launcher and as Kristoff was saying before um um Vega has been a key uh rocket for the Copernicus program we continue to be and Copernicus is a key program for Vega so we really work together I wish to to thank them for their trust in in our teams but let me take this occasion at the end of the Vega program to thank our European partners because uh this program has lasted 12 years you know more than 100 satellites orbited to space this would have never been possible without the great support of the European space agency that has promoted this program from the beginning but I also like uh to thank Ariana space because Ariana space has placed this rocket everywhere in the world we have launched satellites from more than 15 countries around the world thanks to their Global reach I also wish to thank KES uh from KES we have learned a lot we have learned how to respect the rules of safety and many other things over the years and I really wish to thank them I also like to wish our Italian space agents who have supported the program from the beginning and the Italian government who has been behind it with together with the other 13 member states that have participated to this program um but let me also thank my team my team in Avio who has done a tremendous job over 12 years many successes but also challenging times and I could not have a better team trust me because they have been able to overcome challenges and turn to success again and this is the greatest thrust you can have in in your team and I'm really I'm really glad for that and this is the reason why as a last note I would like to dedicate this flight to a close part of the team a team member who unfortunately passed away a couple of weeks ago out of a very very aggressive cancer mik rudnik he was the master of liquid propulsion in our team unfortunately is no longer with us but he would wish to witness this success so I want to dedicate this success to him thank you thank you very much much indeed and congratulations to everybody for a very successful uh launch thank you so much so it's mission accomplished for the last Vega launcher over now to Vega SE of course as and there we have it the final classic Vega has launched senal 2C is in Orbit and acquisition of signal that is going to do it for us here tonight from our TLP Canada studio if you haven't yet take a moment engage that subscribe button so you never miss another live launch coverage space news update or exclusive 101 interview we will eagerly await the next flight of Vega C the Next Generation Vega rocket and we of course are counting down to many more big launches happening as we head into this last quarter of the year new Glenn Starship electron h2a so Vulcan Falcon heavy and who knows what else we have in store so make sure you've engaged that subscribe button so you don't miss any of it and that's going to do it for us here tonight from our TLP Space Coast studio and headquarters my name is Zach and we'll see you next time because space is better together good night for