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 started in 1992 by Topex/Poseidon, followed by Jason 1, 2, 3, and Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich.
The mission is a partnership between NASA, NOAA, ESA (European Space Agency), and EUMETSAT.
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.
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 in November of 2025 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vhttps://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/andenberg Space Force Base in California.
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.