The European Space Agency has decided that its existing fleet of Earth-watching radar satellites could use an upgrade, and it's willing to pay handsomely for the privilege. On June 10, ESA announced it had tapped Thales Alenia Space to build two Sentinel-1 Next Generation (NG) satellites, with Airbus Defence and Space providing the radar payloads - a repeat of the corporate combo that delivered the earlier Sentinel-1 spacecraft.
Thales confirmed it signed a contract whose first tranche is worth 700 million euros ($807 million), though neither the company nor ESA would say how much the total bill will run. Airbus separately valued its radar payload sub-contract at 345 million euros. The Sentinel-1 NG spacecraft will be the fifth and sixth in the overall Sentinel-1 line, all equipped with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for Earth science applications. Three earlier birds - Sentinel-1A, -1C and -1D - are still working, while Sentinel-1B suffered a mysterious orbital malfunction in late 2021.
What do you get for that kind of cash? Improved geometric resolution of 5 by 5 meters, up from the current 5 by 20 meters - because blurry satellite images are so last decade. The new satellites will also boast a wider swath of 400 kilometers versus 250, and can observe the poles using active beam steering. The Sentinel-1 missions are part of the broader Copernicus program, run jointly by ESA and the European Commission, which ESA's Earth observation director Simonetta Cheli called "the most sophisticated environmental monitoring program ever established" in a statement that presumably wasn't written by a comedian.
ESA has not announced a launch date for the Sentinel-1 NG satellites, but they aren't expected until the early 2030s. Airbus projected a first launch in 2034. Meanwhile, Sentinel-1A is over a decade old, while Sentinel-1C launched in December 2024 and Sentinel-1D in November 2025, each with a seven-year nominal lifetime - so there's some overlap before the new kids arrive.
In other ESA news, the agency's Science Programme Committee also approved a small astrophysics mission with a name that sounds like it escaped from a Frank Herbert novel: Arrakihs. The acronym stands for Analysis of Resolved Remnants of Accreted galaxies as a Key Instrument for Halo Surveys, and the spacecraft will carry two binocular telescopes sensitive to ultraviolet through near-infrared wavelengths to study galactic halos. "Arrakihs is a groundbreaking and unique galactic archaeology mission," said ESA's science director Carole Mundell, presumably without the sandworms.
Arrakihs is ESA's second "Fast" (F-class) mission under the Cosmic Vision program, designed to launch within 10 years of selection. The first, Comet Interceptor, is aiming for a launch as soon as August 2028. ESA plans to launch Arrakihs by the end of 2030 but hasn't disclosed launch plans or overall cost, though the F-class cost cap is 175 million euros. Spain is leading the effort, with Spanish company Satlantis as prime contractor for the instrument and Added Value Solutions previously winning a study contract for the spacecraft bus.
The same committee also recommended selecting a medium-class mission called Plasma Observatory to study plasmas in Earth's magnetospheric systems, with a formal decision expected in November. And because no good meeting is complete without extending the deadlines, the committee approved extensions for 13 operating space science missions - including ESA's roles on Hubble and Webb, plus smaller astrophysics, planetary, and space science missions. Because why stop watching the universe when you can keep watching it a little longer?