June 7, 2026
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Breaking News
  • [ June 6, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 2 Starshield satellites during Saturday night Starlink mission Falcon 9
  • [ June 5, 2026 ] NASA crew briefly shelters inside Dragon capsule as Russia addresses new space station leaks Mission Reports
  • [ June 4, 2026 ] NASA head urges new launcher for Blue Origin’s moon landers to meet Artemis mission deadlines Moon Base
  • [ June 3, 2026 ] SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Falcon 9
  • [ June 3, 2026 ] Blue Origin vows to resume New Glenn flights by year’s end Mission Reports

Sentinel 5p

Mission Reports

Photos: Converted Russian ballistic missile fires into space with satellite

October 16, 2017 Stephen Clark

A decommissioned missile originally built in Russia to deliver nuclear weapons to intercontinental targets in the United States vaulted out of a vertical canister Friday and fired into space with a European satellite to monitor global air pollution.

Mission Reports

Modified Russian missile boosts Europe’s newest environmental sentinel to space

October 13, 2017 Stephen Clark

A European satellite that will collect daily air quality measurements over every major city on Earth rode an uprated Russian ballistic missile into orbit Friday.

Members

Q&A with Josef Aschbacher, director of ESA’s Earth observation programs (members only)

October 13, 2017 Stephen Clark

Josef Aschbacher, head of ESA’s Earth observation programs, recently spoke with Spaceflight Now about the importance of the Sentinel 5P satellite mission designed for air quality measurements from space, and discussed increasing data usage from Europe’s Copernicus environmental network, and plans to expand the flagship Earth observation fleet.

Mission Reports

Photos: Sentinel 5P environmental satellite prepared for liftoff

October 13, 2017 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Sentinel 5P satellite, fitted with a Dutch-developed spectrometer to measure gases in Earth’s atmosphere, was fueled and mated to its Russian Rockot booster over the last month at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a military complex around 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Moscow.

Mission Reports

Live coverage: European environmental satellite launches from Russia

October 13, 2017 Stephen Clark

A modified Russian missile built for nuclear war blasted off on a peaceful mission Friday, targeting placement of a European Earth observation satellite in orbit to measure atmospheric chemistry and global air quality. Liftoff from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia occurred at 0927 GMT (5:27 a.m. EDT).

Members

Q&A with Guido Levrini, ESA’s manager of the Copernicus space segment

April 25, 2016 Stephen Clark

Europe is in the midst of launching the most thorough space-based environmental network ever deployed, with satellites to help officials respond to natural disasters, measure crop yield, monitor the health of oceans and ice caps, and track ozone in the atmosphere. Guido Levrini from ESA spoke to Spaceflight Now about the program on the eve of Sentinel 1B’s launch.

News Headlines

  • SpaceX launches 2 Starshield satellites during Saturday night Starlink mission
    June 6, 2026
  • NASA crew briefly shelters inside Dragon capsule as Russia addresses new space station leaks
    June 5, 2026
  • NASA head urges new launcher for Blue Origin’s moon landers to meet Artemis mission deadlines
    June 4, 2026
  • SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg
    June 3, 2026
  • Blue Origin vows to resume New Glenn flights by year’s end
    June 3, 2026
  • SpaceX launches sunrise Starlink mission following weather scrub
    June 3, 2026
  • SpaceX launches 50th Starlink mission of 2026
    May 30, 2026
  • ULA launches 29 Amazon Leo satellites on Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral
    May 29, 2026
  • Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket explodes during prelaunch testing at Cape Canaveral
    May 29, 2026
  • SpaceX launches 29 Starlink satellites on Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral
    May 29, 2026
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