Second Sentinel-2 Satellite to Be Built by Astrium

The European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) subsidiary EADS Astrium has just been awarded a €105 million ($141 million) contract to develop and build the second Sentinel-2 satellite. The European Space Agency (ESA) signed the document making this a reality a few days ago, experts at the agency announce of their official website. The goal of the new satellite will be to provide ground control teams with high-resolution optical imagery for GMES land and emergency services. It will conduct a full sweep of the planet once every five days, mission documents show.

The spacecraft will become an important part of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative, which the European Union set up some time ago. The recent announcement came just a few days after ESA officials announced that they signed a similar contract with Cannes, France-based space company Thales Alenia Space, for the construction of the “B units” for the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3 spacecrafts. In order to achieve the fastest possible land coverage, the GMES satellites will fly in pairs. This way, the first three Sentinel images will be able to systematically acquire the massive amount of data GMES is looking to centralize.

“The Sentinel-2 satellites form an important element of the GMES initiative and will give Europe the ability to monitor environmental changes over an extended period of time. GMES is a unique program and with the Sentinel B units we can ensure global coverage as well as the availability of long-term data, as required by the users,” explained at the ceremony the ESA Director of Earth Observation Programs, Volker Liebig. He signed the deal for ESA, whereas the space company was represented by Evert Dudok, who is the CEO of Astrium Satellites. The company was also awarded the contract to build the Sentinel-2A satellite, back in 2008. Both Sentinel-2 mission components are now to be constructed by Astrium.

The mission will rely heavily on a multispectral imager for conducting its observations. It will be capable of observing the planet in both visible light and near-infrared wavelengths, using a set of 13 spectral bands. This will allow the spacecrafts to create advanced images of the landscape below, which could then be used for a wide variety of civilian and military applications. Sentinel-2 will also provide data related to assisting disaster management and humanitarian relief operations.