Sentinel 2A, the second satellite in the European Earth observation programme Copernicus, was launched on an Italian Vega rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou (French Guyana) in the small hours of 23 June. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), Sentinel 2A should begin operations in three or four months' time.
The satellite, which was built by Airbus Defence and Space, has a life expectancy of seven years and three months in polar orbit, at an altitude of 780…