Sentinel-3C returns its first views of Earth two weeks after launch
8 October 2026
The European Space Agency released the first images and measurements from the Sentinel-3C satellite on 8 October 2026.
Sentinel-3C was launched on 15 September 2026 on a Vega-C rocket, together with the FLEX mission.
It is the third satellite in the Sentinel-3 series and part of Copernicus, the European Union's Earth observation programme.
Its ocean and land colour instrument returned natural-colour views of Italy and of the Canadian Arctic captured on 30 September, and of Cuba and the Bahamas captured on 29 September.
The synthetic aperture radar altimeter measured sea-surface height over the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and mapped the elevation of the Greenland ice sheet between 30 September and 4 October.
ESA says the sea and land surface temperature radiometer will return its first observations soon.
Commissioning is expected to take about five more months, after which ESA and Eumetsat will run the mission jointly.
ESA notes that global sea level has been rising by about 3.64 mm per year since 1999.
In plain words
ESA European Space Agency — The intergovernmental space agency of Europe, headquartered in Paris.
Copernicus European Union Earth observation programme — The EU programme whose Sentinel satellites supply free Earth observation data.
Eumetsat European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites — The Darmstadt-based body that runs Europe's operational weather satellites.