With just two days to liftoff, the next Sentinel for Europe's environmental monitoring programme is now poised high in the launch tower at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

A Soyuz rocket will loft Sentinel-1B into orbit on 22 April at 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST). Other smaller satellite passengers are also taking advantage of the ride into space.

The rocket was rolled out to the pad yesterday, followed by the fairing and its precious cargo, which was hoisted up and attached to the top of Soyuz.

With the Sentinel-1 mission designed as a two-satellite constellation, Sentinel-1B will join its identical twin, Sentinel-1A, which was launched two years ago from Kourou.