{"id":624659,"date":"2026-09-14T19:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T19:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/624659\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T19:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T19:38:17","slug":"2-european-earth-observing-satellites-launching-to-orbit-from-south-america-tonight-watch-it-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/624659\/","title":{"rendered":"2 European Earth-observing satellites launching to orbit from South America tonight: Watch it live"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two European Earth-observing spacecraft will lift off from South America tonight (Sept. 14), and you can watch the action live.<\/p>\n

A Vega C rocket<\/a> carrying the FLEX and Copernicus-3C satellites is scheduled to launch from Europe’s Spaceport<\/a> in Kourou, French Guiana at 9:21 p.m. EDT (10:21 p.m. local time in Kourou and 0121 GMT on Sept. 15).<\/p>\n

You can watch it live here at Space.com courtesy of the European Space Agency<\/a>, or directly via ESA<\/a>. Coverage will begin at 8:50 p.m. EDT (0050 GMT).<\/p>\n

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\"A\n<\/p>\n

A Vega C rocket is scheduled to launch ESA’s FLEX satellite and the Copernicus Sentinel-3C spacecraft from French Guiana on Sept. 14, 2026. (Image credit: ESA-M. P\u00e9doussaut)<\/p>\n

The 875-pound (397-kilogram) FLEX will detect and monitor vegetation fluorescence, which explains its name (a shortening of “Fluorescence Explorer”). By doing so, it will map plant photosynthetic activity \u2014 something no satellite<\/a> can do at the moment, according to ESA.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

FLEX’s data will be important not only “for a better understanding of the global carbon cycle, but also for agricultural management and food security,” ESA wrote in a FLEX mission desription<\/a>. “This is of particular relevance due to demand the growing world population is placing on the production of food.”<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Sentinel-3C is part of the European Union’s Copernicus<\/a> Earth-observation program. The 2,520-pound (1,1143-kg) satellite will continue the Sentinel-3 line, which is aging but still going strong in low Earth orbit<\/a>; Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B, which launched in 2016 and 2018, respectively, remain active.<\/p>\n

“Like its two older siblings in orbit, Sentinel-3C carries a suite of cutting-edge instruments that measure systematically Earth\u2019s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics,” ESA wrote in a Sentinel-3C description<\/a>. “It provides essential information in near-real time for ocean and weather forecasting.”<\/p>\n

\"Space\"<\/p>\n

Both FLEX and Sentinel-3C are scheduled to be deployed at an altitude of about 509 miles (820 kilometers). Both will be flying freely by 116 minutes after launch, if all goes to plan.<\/p>\n

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\"illustration\n<\/p>\n

Artist’s illustration of a Sentinel-3 satellite in orbit. (Image credit: ESA\/ATG medialab)<\/p>\n

The 115-foot-tall (35-meter-tall) Vega C debuted in July 2022 and has seven flights under its belt to date, six of them successful.<\/p>\n

The rocket was developed by ESA and originally operated by the France-based company Arianespace. The Italian outfit Avio now runs the vehicle’s liftoffs, however; today’s launch will be the second Avio has managed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two European Earth-observing spacecraft will lift off from South America tonight (Sept. 14), and you can watch the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":["post-624659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}