ESA: Europe launches Metop-B the Second Weather Satellite

The Metop-B weather satellite was successfully launched into orbit last night from the Baikonur cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan.

Metop-B is the second Metop satellite, and its aim is to follow in the footsteps of its predecessor by monitoring the climate and atmosphere. Metop-A has been inhabiting a polar orbit since 2006, but has now exceeded its design lifetime.

The Russian Soyuz-Fregat vehicle launched at 16:28 UTC on September 17, and the weather satellite took up its position in a polar orbit 69 minutes later.

The first few days will be used to test the systems on board the satellite before commissioning of the payload.

Metop-B was developed for the polar satellite system by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), an international collaboration that operates several meteorological satellites.

Control of the satellite will take place at ESA’s Operations Centre in Germany.