A European Earth observation satellite will cease to function after six years. Sentinel-1B encountered technical problems in December and was unable to solve them. This is why the European Space Agency decided to stop the mission prematurely, the European Space Agency announced on Wednesday.
Sentinel-1B was launched on April 25 aboard a Russian Soyuz aircraft from the European spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana. The service life was at least seven years.
On December 23, the satellite’s power suddenly stopped. Devices no longer receive electricity and the satellite can no longer transmit data to Earth. The reason for this is unknown.
According to the European Space Agency, the satellite’s “twin”, Sentinel-1A, is still working fine. It has been in Earth orbit since April 2014. A replacement for 1B, Sentinel-1C, should launch in the second quarter of next year. Next, 1B must descend from its orbit in a controlled manner and burn up in the atmosphere.
In total, Europe launched eight Sentinel satellites. They are part of a larger European project to observe our planet from space. The project was called Copernicus and cost about eight billion euros.
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