Sentinel-2A

Sentinel-2A is a European optical imaging satellite launched in 2015. It is the first Sentinel-2 satellite launched by the European Space Agency's and this Sentinel is part of the European Commission's Copernicus Programme. The satellite carries a wide swath high-resolution multispectral imager with 13 spectral bands. Its observations support services such as forest monitoring, land cover change-detection, natural disaster management and water quality monitoring. On 7 March 2017 the Sentinel-2A was joined in orbit by its sister satellite, Sentinel-2B.

Mission history

Launch

Sentinel-2A was launched by the Vega VV05 rocket on 23 June 2015 at 01:52 UTC. The satellite separated from the upper stage 54 min 43 s after liftoff.
File:End_of_LEOP_.jpg|none|thumb|Flight controllers at ESA's ESOC celebrating end of LEOP for Sentinel-2A

Orbital operation

The satellite captured its first image 100 hours after launch, covering a wide swath from Sweden through Central Europe to Algeria. Commissioning occurred in October 2015.
Between 20 and 23 January 2017 the spacecraft suffered a mission planning anomaly which resulted in loss of data from its instrument, the Multi-Spectral Imager.
In December 2025, Sentinel-2A performed experimental night observations, something it was not designed to do, in order to test these operations for the follow-on Sentinel-2 Next Generation mission. The satellite successfully captured night-time images of gas flares from oil production in the Middle East, wildfires in India, and fishing boats off the coast of South Korea.