{"id":65863,"date":"2026-09-14T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/?guid=8cb720944686a3532a31cc18e97d9b64"},"modified":"2026-09-15T10:44:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T10:44:41","slug":"2-european-earth-observing-satellites-launching-to-orbit-from-south-america-tonight-watch-it-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2026\/09\/14\/2-european-earth-observing-satellites-launching-to-orbit-from-south-america-tonight-watch-it-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Vega C rocket launches 2 European Earth-observing satellites to orbit from South America (video)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n                            \n                            <article>\n                                <iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/xBUnm83j.html\" id=\"xBUnm83j\" title=\"Blastoff! Vega C rocket launches 2 Earth-observing satellites from French Guiana\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1076\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><p>Two European Earth-observing spacecraft lifted off from South America tonight (Sept. 14).<\/p><p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/europe-vega-c-rocket-kompsat-7-korean-satellite-launch\"><u>Vega C rocket<\/u><\/a> carrying the FLEX and Copernicus-3C satellites launched from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/33949-guiana-space-center.html\"><u>Europe's Spaceport<\/u><\/a> in Kourou, French Guiana at 9:21 p.m. EDT (10:21 p.m. local time in Kourou and 0121 GMT on Sept. 15).<\/p><p>Both FLEX and Sentinel-3C were deployed as planned. They were released at an altitude of about 509 miles (820 kilometers), and both were flying freely by 116 minutes after launch.<\/p><figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:2560px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img id=\"i3APhTDk2Xshik8Sb2jkn3\" name=\"Screenshot 2026-09-14 at 6.21.47\u202fPM\" alt=\"A Vega C rocket launches the FLEX and Sentinel-3C Earth-observation satellites to Earth orbit from Kourou, French Guiana on Sept. 14, 2026.\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/i3APhTDk2Xshik8Sb2jkn3-1920-80.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">A Vega C rocket launches the FLEX and Sentinel-3C Earth-observation satellites to Earth orbit from Kourou, French Guiana on Sept. 14, 2026. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: ESA\/Avio)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>The 875-pound (397-kilogram) FLEX will detect and monitor vegetation fluorescence, which explains its name (a shortening of \"Fluorescence Explorer\"). By doing so, it will map plant photosynthetic activity \u2014 something no <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/24839-satellites.html\"><u>satellite<\/u><\/a> can do at the moment, according to ESA. <\/p><p>FLEX's data will be important not only \"for a better understanding of the global carbon cycle, but also for agricultural management and food security,\" ESA wrote in a <a href=\"https:\/\/earth.esa.int\/eogateway\/missions\/flex\" ><u>FLEX mission desription<\/u><\/a>. \"This is of particular relevance due to demand the growing world population is placing on the production of food.\"<\/p><p>Sentinel-3C is part of the European Union's <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/copernicus-program\"><u>Copernicus<\/u><\/a> Earth-observation program. The 2,520-pound (1,1143-kg) satellite will continue the Sentinel-3 line, which is aging but still going strong in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/low-earth-orbit\"><u>low Earth orbit<\/u><\/a>; Sentinel-3A and Sentinel-3B, which launched in 2016 and 2018, respectively, remain active.<\/p><p>\"Like its two older siblings in orbit, Sentinel-3C carries a suite of cutting-edge instruments that measure systematically Earth\u2019s oceans, land, ice and atmosphere to monitor and understand large-scale global dynamics,\" ESA wrote in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/ESA_Multimedia\/Videos\/2026\/09\/Media_briefing_ahead_of_FLEX_and_Sentinel-3C_launch\" ><u>Sentinel-3C description<\/u><\/a>. \"It provides essential information in near-real time for ocean and weather forecasting.\"<\/p><figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:2560px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img id=\"Q3HYvA6D7fWMoyvNtmEMTL\" name=\"Copernicus_Sentinel-3 (1)\" alt=\"illustration of a boxy silver satellite flying over earth\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/Q3HYvA6D7fWMoyvNtmEMTL-1920-80.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">Artist's illustration of a Sentinel-3 satellite in orbit. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: ESA\/ATG medialab)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>The 115-foot-tall (35-meter-tall) Vega C debuted in July 2022 and had seven flights under its belt before today, six of them successful.<\/p><p>The rocket was developed by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/22562-european-space-agency.html\"><u>European Space Agency<\/u><\/a> and originally operated by the France-based company Arianespace. The Italian outfit Avio now runs the vehicle's liftoffs, however; today's launch was the second Avio has managed.<\/p><p><em><strong>Editor's note: <\/strong><\/em><em>This story was updated at 9:35 p.m. ET with news of successful liftoff, then again at 1:10 a.m. ET with news of successful satellite deployment.<\/em><\/p>\n                                                            <\/article>\n                            \n                        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Vega C rocket launched Europe&#8217;s FLEX and Copernicus-3C spacecraft toward orbit from French Guiana tonight (Sept. 14).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3556,1263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-launches-spacecraft","category-space-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65863"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/587"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65863"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65917,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65863\/revisions\/65917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}