Rockot Tapped to Deliver Two “Sentinels” to Orbit

Today, February 9, officials from the European Space Agency and the Bremen, Germany-based Eurockot signed an agreement reserving a Russian-built Rockot delivery system for the upcoming launch of two ESA satellites.

Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-3A – part of the GMES Sentinel constellation program – are now scheduled for liftoff towards the end of 2013. They will use a Rockot-series rocket, which will launch from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, in the Russian Federation.

Eurockot is a collaboration between renowned aerospace company Astrium and Khrunichev Space Center, which is the Russian partner that provides the actual rockets. The Rockot vehicles are in fact modified UR-100N (SS-19 Stiletto) intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).

The agreement was signed by Eurockot Launch Services GmbH CEO Matthias Oehm and the Director of the ESA Earth Observation Program, Volker Liebig. “With the launch of the first suite of Sentinels, a new era of Earth observation will start in Europe,” Liebig commented.