Search Here

The European Space Agency has successfully launched Sentinel-1A satellite that has been designed to monitor natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. 

The satellite is first in number of the multibillion-euro Copernicus Earth observation project. The satellite will provide valuable images in event of natural disasters or even a plane crash, CS Monitor reported.

The Sentinel-1A blasted off into Earth's orbit from Europe's spaceport in French Guaina at 2102 GMT. Officials said the satellite will be also used for monitoring sea ice, oil spills and land use so that appropriate measures could be taken in case of emergencies. 

The satellite carries a 12-meter-long radar antenna and has two 10-meter-long solar panels and is orbiting Earth at 696 km above the earth. 

European Union and the European Space Agency have committed funding of around $11.5 billion for the ambitious Copernicus project. 

"The Sentinels will keep a watchful eye on our planet," Thomas Reiter, ESA director of human spaceflight and operations and head of the ESA's satellite control centre ESOC, said at the launch event in the German city of Darmstadt near Frankfurt, according to CS Monitor.

"The big step forward is that we can now cover every place on Earth every three to six days," Volker Liebig, director of ESA's Earth Observation program, said ahead of the launch.

"This used to take much longer with Envisat. If you want to use images for disaster management support or to find a plane, then you want the images to be as fresh as possible."

Along with Copernicus, EU's other flagship space program includes satellite-navigation initiative Galileo which will expectedly lock horns against dominant U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and Russia's GLONASS and China's new Beidou system.