spacetoday.net: Falcon 9 launches Sentinel-6 ocean science satellite

Posted: Fri, Nov 27, 2020, 10:56 AM ET (1556 GMT)
Falcon 9 launch of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich (SpaceX)

A Falcon 9 launched an ocean science satellite for the U.S. and Europe Saturday. The Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 12:17 p.m. Eastern and released the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite into orbit about an hour later. The satellite, jointly developed by several agencies in the U.S. and Europe, is the latest in a series of missions dating back nearly three decades to track rising sea levels. The roughly $1 billion Sentinel-6 program, whose costs are evenly shared by the U.S. and Europe, includes a second satellite that will launch in mid-decade. The launch was the first orbital mission from Vandenberg in more than a year, but despite the long hiatus in launch activity, officials said the facility has a "very promising future" as it works to attract more commercial operators.