Sentinel-1D Launch to Secure Continuity of Europe’s Earth Observation Services

The EU Space Programme continues to advance, with the successful launch of Sentinel-1D, the upcoming Galileo Launch 14, and several additional missions planned for 2026, marking another strong step forward for Europe's leadership in space and innovation.

2025 is another milestone year for the EU Space Programme. Following the successful expansion of Copernicus with the launches of Sentinel-5A and Sentinel-4A earlier in the year, on 4 November 2025, Sentinel-1D lift off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, ensuring the continuity of services on which a wide range of end users rely worldwide.

Sentinel-1D joins Sentinel-1C, launched in December 2024. Both satellites are equipped with Galileo-enabled receivers for enhanced in-orbit positioning accuracy and carry an Automatic Identification System (AIS) payload to detect signals from ships-supporting maritime domain awareness and the detection of unauthorised activities at sea.

"With the launch of Sentinel-1D, the continuity and reliability of Europe's Earth Observation services are further strengthened, supporting the development of many applications. The Galileo receiver onboard this satellite allows the use of European Union's advanced navigation capabilities to enhance precision and resilience, ensuring that Copernicus continues to provide high-quality data to users worldwide", says Rodrigo da Costa, EUSPA Executive Director.

The launch of Sentinel-1D aboard Ariane 6 reflects Europe's growing capacity to place its satellites into orbit on its own terms, strengthening the resilience of Copernicus services and the EU's strategic autonomy in space.

A decade of radar excellence

When Sentinel-1A launched in 2014, it marked the start of routine, operational monitoring under Copernicus. Building on Europe's earlier Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) heritage from missions such as Envisat, it transformed access to radar data by making it routinely available on a free and open basis. Sentinel-1D will now gradually replace Sentinel-1A to ensure full operational capacity and continuity of radar data worldwide.

Sentinel-1's radar sensor enables continuous monitoring of land, oceans, and ice, day and night and regardless of cloud cover, and over the past decade its data have supported flood response, coastline mapping, oil spill detection, maritime surveillance, and monitoring of forests, vegetation, and agriculture.

These Sentinel 1 capabilities are already used by several projects supported by EUSPA to develop useful applications and transform Earth Observation data into impactful services for the environment, security, economy, and society.

For instance, the Sentinel-1D data can be correlated and fused with AIS data, enabling easier detection and identification of vessels at sea for maritime surveillance, which is one of the use cases developed in the EUSPA Embed2Scale project.

The data will also support comprehensive forest damage detection and mapping in tandem with optical data coming from Sentinel-2, to support the development of commercial applications as those developed in SWIFTT project. Forests are a key concern in monitoring climate change and together with PEFC, we are also analysing how EU Space data, particularly Copernicus , can support sustainable forestry practices.

Beyond the European Union, it will help communities and farmers to match agricultural inputs (fertilisers, pesticides, water) to what the crop needs, decreasing their environmental footprint, as in the development taking place in DINOSAR project for sugarcane crops in Colombia.

Sentinel-1 is already used in applications related to mining activities such as ERAMET.

By replenishing the Sentinel-1 constellation, the EU guarantees the uninterrupted delivery of high-quality Copernicus data, empowering researchers, public authorities, and businesses to better understand and manage our planet for the benefit of all.

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