The European Space Agency launched its FLEX Earth Explorer mission and the Copernicus Sentinel-3C satellite together on a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Flight VV30 lifted off in the early hours of 15 September, with Sentinel-3C deployed first and FLEX separated about an hour later, before both spacecraft confirmed first contact with ESA’s operations centre in Germany.
The dual launch places two Earth-observation missions into their required orbits using a shared configuration inside the Vega-C fairing. Sentinel-3C, the third satellite in the Copernicus Sentinel-3 series, will continue gathering environmental data on oceans, land, ice and the atmosphere for the Copernicus programme.
FLEX is an Earth Explorer mission focused on vegetation fluorescence, photosynthesis and plant stress. ESA has positioned the mission as a scientific complement to Sentinel-3C, with FLEX supplying plant-health data and Sentinel-3C providing broader environmental context for long-term monitoring of ecosystems and climate-related change.