MOSCOW – The European Sentinel-3B environmental monitoring satellitereached the designated sun-synchronous orbit after launch on board a Rokotcarrier rocket from the Plesetsk space center in northwestern Russiaearlier on Wednesday.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the Sentinel-3B joins itstwin satellite, the Sentinel-3A, which was launched in February 2016,to provide unique and timely information about the changing land cover,vegetation, urban heat and wildfire tracking.

The satellites will be able to survey the entire planet in a span of twodays, the agency said.