Following its launch yesterday, Sentinel-1A has performed a carefully choreographed 10-hour dance routine to open its large radar antenna and solar wings.

The ability of European citizens, policymakers and service providers to access key environmental data on a routine basis will take a major step forward following the launch today of ESA’s Sentinel-1A satellite.

With Sentinel-1A now sitting atop its Soyuz rocket, liftoff from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana is set for today at 23:02 CEST (21:02 GMT).

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.

As preparations for the launch of the first satellite for Copernicus continue on track, the team at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana has said farewell to Sentinel-1A as it was sealed from view within the rocket fairing. Liftoff is set for 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST) on Thursday.

In anticipation of the launch for Sentinel-1A, the European Space Agency is pleased to announce the possibility for users to pre-register for online access to Sentinel data.

With air pollution linked to millions of deaths around the world, it has never been more important to monitor the air we breathe. Today marks a significant step forward as a deal is secured to build a crucial space sensor for tracking the world's air quality.

Exploitation of radar altimeter data over coastal areas has always been problematic as a consequence of contamination of waveforms due to land or very calm waters in the radar footprint, and inaccurate tidal and wet tropospheric corrections.

Twenty years of radar coverage from ESA satellites have been used to measure the rapid thinning of Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier - and it's losing more ice than previously thought.

ESA's first satellite dedicated to Europe's environmental monitoring Copernicus programme has been fuelled and pressurised, ready for its launch on 3 April.