Europe’s first next-generation meteorological satellite, MetOp-SG A1, was successfully launched on 13 August 2025 aboard an Ariane 6 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. Built by Airbus for the European Space Agency (ESA) and EUMETSAT, the satellite has established communications and entered its commissioning phase.
MetOp-SG A1 is the first of six satellites in the MetOp Second Generation programme, which will operate into the mid-2040s to provide more accurate and detailed weather data. The ‘A’ series carries advanced atmospheric sounding and imaging instruments, including the next-generation Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI-NG), METimage imager, Microwave Sounder, Radio Occultation Sounder, the innovative 3MI aerosol/cloud monitor, and the Copernicus Sentinel-5 instrument for atmospheric composition tracking.
The programme is a major European collaboration involving ESA, EUMETSAT, the EU’s Copernicus programme, CNES, DLR, the UK Space Agency, and an Airbus-led industrial consortium. Each satellite has a 7.5-year lifetime, ensuring 21 years of continuous coverage. The launch marks both the operational debut of Ariane 6 for this mission type and a significant step forward in global weather forecasting and climate monitoring capabilities.