SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch of U.S.-European Earth Satellite Sentinel-6B | NASA
On Sunday, November 16, 2025, at 9:21 p.m. Pacific Time (PT), a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched NASA’s Sentinel-6B mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) from Vandenberg in California. This marks Falcon’s 500th mission with a flight-proven booster overall.
Additionally, this was the third flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission that previously supported two Starlink missions. Following stage separation, the first stage landed on Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at Vandenberg.
Sentinel-6B will use radar to bounce signals off of the ocean surface to deliver continuous ocean topography measurements. The mission also will collect high-resolution vertical profiles of temperature to assess temperature changes in Earth’s atmosphere and improve weather prediction models. It took over from Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, a twin of Sentinel-6B, which Falcon 9 launched five years ago from SLC-4E on November 21, 2020.
More launch information here: https://www.spacex.com/launches/sentinel-6b
NASA and its U.S. and international partners have teamed up to launch a new Earth-observing satellite called Sentinel-6B that will measure sea surface height of most of the planet’s ocean. These observations will help build an accurate picture of local and global sea levels for weather and storm forecasting to secure coastal property and infrastructure, and to support commercial activities, such as shipping and undersea pipeline operations.
Sentinel-6B is the latest in a series of satellites dating back to 1992 that have created a more-than-30-year record of sea level rise around the globe. It is part of the Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-Continuity of Service (CS) mission. The first, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, was launched in 2020. As its twin, Sentinel-6B will continue measuring sea levels down to roughly an inch for about 90% of Earth’s ocean.
The Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission was jointly developed by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), with funding support from the European Commission and technical support from the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES).
Earlier this year, Sentinel-6B was removed from storage and underwent a series of checks at IABG in Ottobrunn, Germany. It was then transported by truck to Bremen, where it was loaded onto the Industrial Dolphin ship for a three-week sea voyage to Galveston, Texas. Upon arrival, it was transported by road to NASA’s facilities at Vandenberg, California, where it remained in storage until October, when final launch preparations were made.
The Sentinel-6B satellite was built by Airbus Defence and Space in Europe.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/sentinel-6/
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