Ariane 6 Launches Metop-SGA1 Weather Satellite into Polar Orbit

Ariane 6, Europe's heavy-lift rocket made it's third successful lift-off from from Kourou, French Guiana on August 12 at 8:37 p.m. EDT. This time, it's payload is Metop-SGA1, an 8,900-pound (4,040-kilogram) weather satellite that will be operated by the international group EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites). After liftoff, Ariane 6 placed the payload into a 500-mile-high (800 km) polar orbit roughly 64 minutes later. In its first commercial mission in March 2025, Ariane 6 carried a French spy satellite.

Ariane 6

According to official websites, Ariane 6, the successor to the recently retired Ariane 5, is built by the French company ArianeGroup and operated by its subsidiary Arianespace on behalf of European Space Agency. It is a two stage rocket which has a Vulcain 2.1 engine (an evolved variant of the Ariane 5's Vulcain 2, an evolved variant of the Ariane 5's Vulcain 2) powered first stage, and its upper stage features one Vinci engine, which is new technology.

The rocket made its debut with a test flight in July 2024 and flew again this past March, successfully sending a French spy satellite to Earth orbit on the rocket's first-ever commercial mission.

About the Payload

The Metop-SGA1 (Second Generation A1) satellite is the first of the next generation of European polar-orbiting weather satellites. Metop-SGA1 will host a total of six atmospheric sounding and imaging instrument missions that will provide optical, infrared, and microwave observations essential data for weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and a wide range of other services and applications. Amongst its hosts, Metop-SGA1 carries the new Sentinel-5 atmospheric monitoring mission, part of the European Commission's Copernicus programme.

The satellite will take global observation of weather and climate from a polar orbit to a new level, providing high resolution observations of temperature, precipitation, clouds, winds, sea ice, aerosols, pollution, soil moisture, volcanic dust, and a multitude of other parameters.

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