This satellite will monitor pollution when it reaches its final station as part of Copernicus, a global monitoring program.

Europe’s pollution monitoring satellite Sentinel-5 Precursor has left Airbus’ Stevenage site and is on its way to the launch site, the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia for a launch on October 9 on a Rockot rocket.

The journey that will last five days begins with a flight to Moscow aboard an Antonov 124, followed by another flight to Archangelsk in the northwest of Russia. The last leg of the journey will be a train ride taking the satellite 200km south of Archangelsk to the Russian spaceport of Plesetsk.

Sentinel-5 Precursor begins final journey to launch site

Sentinel-5 Precursor is part of the global monitoring program Copernicus, a joint European Commission–ESA undertaking which aims to acquire continuous and accurate Earth observation data and provide services to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change and ensure civil security.

Sentinel-5 Precursor will provide essential atmospheric chemistry data to the Copernicus program before the Sentinel-5 instrument becomes operational in 2021 on the MetOp Second Generation satellite.

Airbus was prime for Sentinel-5 Precursor, with three sites involved in development and manufacturing of the satellites and its components: Stevenage (UK - prime), Toulouse (France) and Friedrichshafen (Germany). The TROPOMI instrument was built by Airbus Netherlands.