New European satellite into space

Europe has again launched a satellite to monitor the earth.

Sentinel satellites see where changes include the soil.,, We can for example take the dikes monitored continuously in the Netherlands. The satellite sees from 700 kilometers altitude that a building sags a millimeter, '' mission leader Josef Aschbacher explains.

The satellites can measure where the sea ice is precisely so that ships can be guided along it. That's important, because the next few years, probably more ships sail through Arctic waters. This is due to the shrinking of the ice caps. Aschbacher:,, We recently did a test on the Baltic Sea, to see how much money can be saved if we can better tell captains what routes they should avoid. Just to save the Baltic Sea fell 25 per year to 110 million euros. ''

The Sentinels can also monitor crops on earth. The launched satellite will cost over 200 million euros. The solar panels are made by Airbus Defence and Space in Leiden, the former Fokker Space. The probe is part of a larger European project, which cost about 8 billion euros.