SpaceX Launches Sentinel-6B Satellite to Monitor Rising Sea Levels

The Sentinel-6B mission continues a decades-long effort to monitor sea levels accurately from orbit. The satellite, built by Airbus Defence and Space, was deployed 57 minutes after launch, following two burns by the Falcon 9’s second stage. Sentinel-6B will orbit at an altitude of 830 miles (1,336 km), inclined at 66 degrees to the Equator. Its predecessor, Sentinel-6A Michael Freilich, launched five years prior and continues to operate. The mission’s data is crucial for understanding the rate of sea-level rise, an important indicator of climate change affecting nearly a billion people in coastal regions. The launch faced a 60% probability of weather-related violations, but conditions improved, allowing the launch to proceed successfully.

To monitor global sea levels and ocean conditions with high precision.

NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the European Commission, and the French space agency CNES.

The satellite can measure sea level heights down to roughly one inch across 90% of the world’s oceans.

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