ESA has awarded a contract worth €105 million to Astrium to build the second Sentinel-2 satellite. Once both are operational, this pair of satellites will provide global coverage every five days, delivering high-resolution optical imagery for GMES land and emergency services.
Marking another milestone in Europe's Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative, this contract follows hot on the heels of the agreement between ESA and Thales Alenia Space to build the second, or 'B units', for Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-3.
These contracts ensure that the first three Sentinel missions will fly as pairs to achieve fast coverage of Earth's land surface, acquiring the systematic data needed for the GMES services.
Sentinel-2 carries a multispectral imager that uses 13 spectral bands from the visible and near-infrared to the shortwave infrared to reveal different features of the landscape. Together with its swath of 290 km, this mission will realise a new generation of imagery for land monitoring.
For full article please visit: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEME2GIK97G_index_0.html
Source: ESA
