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The satellite, which was largely manufactured by Airbus in Stevenage, is the first in the European Commission and European Space Agency’s Copernicus programme dedicated to monitoring the atmosphere. Its Dutch-designed Tropomi instrument will reportedly make 20m observations around the entire globe every day, mapping gases such as methane, carbon monoxide, ozone and aerosols.
In Westminster, people from government, Airbus and other organisations gathered at the UK Space Agency alongside sixth-form students and reporters to remotely watch the launch at 9.27am. After nervously noting satellite launch failures in India and China earlier this year – and the potentially superstitious date – senior representatives gave talks as the countdown approached.
“It’s not the largest or most complicated satellite we’ve built,” said Airbus Defence and Space UK managing director Colin Paynter. “But it provides a really good shining example, if you like, and in many ways it is a ground-breaking satellite for us.”
The Sentinel-5P is one of eight missions using the same satellite platform design, said Paynter, making it one of the fastest and most predictable build programmes. He called it a “truly European” collaboration led by Stevenage, with other work in Toulouse, France, and elsewhere.
Despite Brexit, the government is committed to continued work with the Copernicus programme and hopes to use Sentinel-5P data as it has done with information from other European satellites. “Air quality is of critical importance to this government and my ministers and we look forward to seeing how we can use Sentinel-5P data going forward,” said Iain Williams from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Today was “a great day for the UK… for society, for science, for industry,” said Stephen Briggs, senior adviser to the director of earth observation at the European Space Agency.
Mission control received the first signal from Sentinel-5P at midday and confirmed it was successfully deployed in orbit.
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