METOP-SG A1 Mission
8/13/2025
Arianespace declared mission success for flight VA264 and that Ariane 6 placed MetOp-SG A1 into sun-synchronous orbit for EUMETSAT at 01:41 UTC on August 13, 2025.
The IASI-NG instrument on MetOp-SG A1 generated its first atmospheric spectrum data during an overflight of Toulouse, France, with initial results reported on October 22, 2025.
The VA264 mission placed MetOp-SG A1 into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of around 800 km.
EUMETSAT will operate the MetOp-SG A1 satellite and distribute its data to users throughout the satellite's lifetime.
The VA264 Ariane 6 launch used the two-booster configuration of the vehicle for the MetOp-SG A1 mission.
ESA confirmed MetOp-SG A1 was operationally alive after deployment of its solar array, with that confirmation issued after the launch.
Jonathan McDowell's Space-Track data showed METOP-SG A1 in an 802 x 806 km orbit after launch.
On August 12, 2025 at 21:37 local time (00:37 UTC on August 13, 2025), Ariane 6 lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana carrying the MetOp-SG A1 satellite on mission VA264.
MetOp-SG A1 carries a total of six atmospheric sounding and imaging instruments including the Copernicus Sentinel-5 spectrometer.
MetOp-SG A1's Microwave Sounder (MWS) and Radio Occultation (RO) instruments returned early commissioning data by September 2, 2025.
Eumetsat has two second-generation MetOp satellites, Metop-SG A1 and Metop-SG B1, planned to launch on Soyuz rockets between 2021 and 2023.