Following the Christmas break, the Sentinel-3A satellite has been taken out of its storage container and woken up as the campaign to prepare it for launch resumes at the Russian Plesetsk cosmodrome. Liftoff is set for 4 February.
This latest satellite for Europe's environmental Copernicus programme has been at the launch site since early December going through a series of tests and being readied for the big day.
Since the cosmodrome was effectively closed over the Christmas break, the satellite has been stored safely in its transport container in the cleanroom over the last three weeks.
The European Commission's Copernicus is now well and truly powering ahead as its comprehensive integrated system of Sentinel satellites grows. Carrying a suite of cutting-edge instruments, Sentinel-3A will join the Sentinel-1A radar satellite and the Sentinel-2A high-resolution optical satellite in orbit to monitor the health of our planet.