A full 'dress rehearsal' involving teams on both sides of the Atlantic took place yesterday, marking the last major step in training teams for the Sentinel-1A lift off on 3 April.

Launch of ESA's Sentinel-1A radar satellite will mark a new shift in European Earth observation, focusing on operational missions to support users for decades to come.

As part of the Copernicus programme, Sentinel-1A is the first of a two-satellite mission that will image land and oceans using highly precise radar, enabling the pair to acquire imagery regardless of weather.

Lift off is set for 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST) on a Soyuz rocket from Kourou, the seventh Russian-built Soyuz to take off from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.