Pollution-Tracking Satellite Launches Friday: Watch Live

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By Tariq Malik
published

European Sentinel-5P satellite
An artist's illustration of the European Sentinel-5P satellite built to track global air-pollution levels from space. (Image credit: ESA/ATG medialab)

A European satellite built to map Earth's air like never before will launch into space early Friday (Oct. 13), and you can watch it live online. 

The Sentinel-5P satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) is scheduled to lift off aboard a Rockot launch vehicle at 5:27 a.m. EDT (0927 GMT) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. You can watch the launch live here beginning at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT), courtesy of the ESA. You can also watch the launch directly from the ESA here.

Sentinel-5P (the "P" stands for "Precursor") is designed to track global air pollution from orbit in unprecedented detail. The satellite is part of the European Union's Copernicus program for Earth-monitoring missions, but it is the first dedicated to creating a global map of air quality every 24 hours. 

At the heart of Sentinel-5P is Tropomi (short for Tropospheric Monitoring Instrument), which will map air quality along a swath 1,801 miles (2,900 kilometers) wide from an orbit 512 miles (824 km) above Earth. The instrument will monitor trace gases that affect the air we breathe, such as nitrogen dioxide, ozone, formaldehyde, sulfur dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide and aerosols, according to an ESA mission description. 

The European Space Agency's Sentinel-5P satellite is hoisted up onto its Rocket launch vehicle at Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome ahead of a planned Oct. 13, 2017, launch. (Image credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2017)

"Every day, Tropomi will make almost 20 million observations of important air pollutants and gases affecting the climate," Pepijn Veefkind from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) said in a recent statement. "KNMI will use this data to improve air-quality forecasts and to keep a close eye on emission increases or reductions, and to monitor what mitigation measures are effective in protecting the air we breathe."

The Sentinel-5P satellite is designed for a mission life of about seven years but carries enough fuel to last a decade, ESA officials said. 

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.