December 16, 2025
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Breaking News
  • [ December 15, 2025 ] Rocket Lab Electron rocket aborts liftoff at engine ignition Electron
  • [ December 15, 2025 ] ULA Atlas 5 launch puts Amazon’s 180th broadband satellite in low Earth orbit Atlas 5
  • [ December 14, 2025 ] Falcon 9 launch of 29 Starlink satellites from the Kennedy Space Center delayed to Wednesday Falcon 9
  • [ December 14, 2025 ] SpaceX launches 100th Falcon 9 rocket from Florida in 2025 Falcon 9
  • [ December 13, 2025 ] SpaceX completes 550th booster landing amid Saturday night Falcon 9 flight Falcon 9

Sentinel 3

Mission Reports

Photos: Modified Russian ballistic missile blasts off with European satellite

April 27, 2018 Stephen Clark

Check out photos of Wednesday’s launch of a Russian Rockot booster, derived from a decommissioned Soviet-era nuclear missile, with Europe’s Sentinel 3B Earth observation satellite.

Mission Reports

European environmental observer launched by Russian rocket

April 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

A new European satellite carrying instruments to track changes in the world’s oceans, measure receding ice sheets and chart vegetation growth climbed into orbit Wednesday on top of a Russian Rockot launcher.

Mission Reports

Photos: Sentinel 3B satellite prepared for launch from Plesetsk Cosmodrome

April 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Sentinel 3B environmental satellite was shipped to the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in Russia’s far northern Arkhangelsk region in March for a month-long campaign to prepare the spacecraft for liftoff aboard a Rockot launcher.

Mission Reports

Live coverage: Europe’s next environmental sentinel lifts off

April 25, 2018 Stephen Clark

A European environmental satellite designed to monitor Earth’s oceans, lakes and vegetation lifted off Wednesday aboard a modified Russian ballistic missile originally built to carry nuclear warheads. The mission launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome around 500 miles north of Moscow at 1757:51 GMT (1:57:51 p.m. EDT).

News

Look back on the blastoff of a Russian missile-turned-launcher

February 17, 2016 Stephen Clark

A Soviet-era missile originally built to deliver nuclear warheads to the United States in wartime fired into space for a much different purpose Tuesday, carrying a European environmental satellite into orbit to help track the effects of climate change.

News

European oceanography satellite rides Russian rocket into orbit

February 16, 2016 Stephen Clark

Soaring into the night sky over a guarded Russian military base, a 1.2-ton European satellite rocketed into orbit Tuesday to regularly measure how the world’s oceans and ice sheets respond to climate change and drive global weather patterns.

Mission Reports

Live coverage: European ocean survey satellite launches from Russia

February 16, 2016 Stephen Clark

A European environmental satellite launched Tuesday from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome to begin a mission of at least seven years measuring the height, color and temperature of the world’s oceans. The Sentinel 3A spacecraft lifted off aboard a Rockot booster at 1757 GMT (12:57 p.m. EST).

News

Satellite primed for launch to survey oceans, ice sheets

February 15, 2016 Stephen Clark

Russian rocket technicians fueled a decommissioned ballistic missile with propellants Monday, a day ahead of the launch of a European satellite primed to observe the planet’s oceans.

News

Photos: Sentinel 3A prepared for liftoff

February 15, 2016 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Sentinel 3A satellite, designed for real-time surveys of the world’s oceans, ice sheets, lakes and rivers, is attached to a decommissioned Russian nuclear missile for launch Tuesday. These photos show the spacecraft’s final prelaunch preparations.

News Headlines

  • Rocket Lab Electron rocket aborts liftoff at engine ignition
    December 15, 2025
  • ULA Atlas 5 launch puts Amazon’s 180th broadband satellite in low Earth orbit
    December 15, 2025
  • Falcon 9 launch of 29 Starlink satellites from the Kennedy Space Center delayed to Wednesday
    December 14, 2025
  • SpaceX launches 100th Falcon 9 rocket from Florida in 2025
    December 14, 2025
  • SpaceX completes 550th booster landing amid Saturday night Falcon 9 flight
    December 13, 2025
  • Blue Origin halfway through 4-flight certification to allow launch of national security missions
    December 13, 2025
  • Study: Current, future megaconstellations risk space-based astronomy
    December 12, 2025
  • SpaceX breaks launch pad turnaround record with flight of Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
    December 11, 2025
  • SpaceX launches 160th Falcon 9 rocket of 2025
    December 10, 2025
  • SpaceX launches classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office
    December 9, 2025
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