- January 21, 2008
- Posted by: EARSC
- Category: EARSC News
The European Space Agency expects 2008 to be a year of significant progress with its most important programmes according to Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the ESA. It started with a key milestone for the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme.
On 16 January, the ESA finalised its agreement with the European Commission for GMES Segment One, which covers development of the first of three Sentinel Earth observation spacecraft. According to Jean Jacques Dordain, this agreement should be approved by the ESA Council of Member States at its 15 February meeting.
ESA has already signed the contract for Sentinel-1 with prime contractor Thales Alenia Space and, once the Segment One agreement is approved, it can sign contracts for Sentinel-2 and -3. Sentinel-1 will be launched in 2011, with -2 and -3 following in 2012.
More information at Flightglobal
Source GMES.Info