Sentinel-6B Spacecraft Mated to Work Stand

Technicians use a crane to place the Sentinel-6B spacecraft onto a work stand ahead of prelaunch operations at the Astrotech Space Operations payload processing facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. Sentinel-6B will undergo detailed inspections, tests, and fueling in a cleanroom as it prepares for a November launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. A collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sentinel-6B is designed to measure sea levels down to roughly an inch for about 90% of the world’s oceans and will extend out to a decade the record of atmospheric temperatures begun by Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich.