METOP A

retired

Earth ObservationLEOCOSPAR 2006-044ALaunched 10/19/2006

Admin Edit

Mission & Launch

Launch Mission: Metop 2
Launch Vehicle: Soyuz-2-1A Fregat
Launch Date: 10/19/2006
Last Contact: 11/22/2021

Orbit & Mass

Orbit Class: LEO
Altitude: 819.5 km
Inclination: 98.74 deg
Dry Mass: 3,769 kg
Total Mass: 4,086 kg

Payload Classification

Mission Type: Earth Observation
Payload Category: MET
Payload Class: C

Organizations

Operator: European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)
Manufacturer: Airbus

Registry

COSPAR ID: 2006-044A
UN Registration: ST/SG/SER.E/505

Track

Mentions

4

All verified mentions of this spacecraft in source documents.

Metop-A was the first satellite subject to an agreement between the United States and Europe that placed NOAA-provided instruments on a European satellite operated by EUMETSAT.

RelationshipsGeneralValue 4.0Nov 30, 2021Europe’s First Polar-Orbiting Weather Satellite Successfully Deorbited

The deep-space scanning maneuver on Metop-A acquired data intended to improve calibration and provide a new baseline for data processing applicable retrospectively to all Metop data.

CapabilityGeneralValue 3.0Nov 30, 2021Europe’s First Polar-Orbiting Weather Satellite Successfully Deorbited

Metop-A was launched in 2006 on a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan.

PlanCapabilityValue 3.0Nov 6, 2018Soyuz launches European weather satellite

Metop-C will operate in the same 817-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit with a mid-morning crossing time as Metop-A and Metop-B.

CapabilityValue 4.2Nov 6, 2018Soyuz launches European weather satellite