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NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for Sentinel-6B Mission

Dec. 20, 2022
In this illustration, the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich spacecraft, the world's latest sea-level satellite, orbits Earth with its deployable solar panels extended.

In this illustration, Sentinel 6B’s twin, the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich spacecraft, orbits Earth with its deployable solar panels extended.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Full Image Details

Sentinel-6B will continue the long-term global sea level data record begun in 1992 by Topex/Poseidon followed by Jason 1, 2, 3, and Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich.

NASA has selected Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California, to provide launch services for the Sentinel-6B mission. Sentinel-6B will continue the long-term global sea level data record begun in 1992 by Topex/Poseidon followed by Jason 1, 2, 3, and Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich. The mission is a partnership between NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, ESA (European Space Agency), and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites.

This is a firm fixed price contract with a value of approximately $94 million, which includes launch services and other mission related costs. The Sentinel-6B mission currently is targeted to launch November 2025, on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Sentinel-6B will use a radar altimeter to bounce signals off the ocean surface and deliver continuity of ocean topography measurements. The mission also will collect high-resolution vertical profiles of temperature, using the Global Navigation Satellite System Radio-Occultation sounding technique, to assess temperature changes in Earth’s atmosphere and improve weather prediction models.

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NASA’s Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for program management of the SpaceX launch services. The Sentinel-6B project office is located at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

For more information about NASA programs and missions, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov

News Media Contact

Gerelle Dodson

Headquarters, Washington

202-358-4637

gerelle.q.dodson@nasa.gov

Patti Bielling

Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

321-867-9284

patricia.a.bielling@nasa.gov

2022-203

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