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Liftoff! Sentinel-6B Journeys to Orbit

A rocket lifts off at night, producing a large plume of bright exhaust and thick clouds of smoke at the base. The rocket ascends vertically from a launch pad surrounded by floodlights, buildings, and tanks against a dark sky
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the international Sentinel-6B spacecraft lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. 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.
NASA/Carla Thomas

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the U.S.-European Sentinel-6B satellite launched at 9:21 p.m. PST (12:21 a.m. EST Monday, Nov. 17) from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Sentinel-6B will eventually take over as the official reference satellite for global sea level measurements from its twin, the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite launched Nov. 21, 2020, from the same launch pad.

In the next few minutes, the Falcon 9 will experience Max Q, the moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket. Once the first stage main engines cutoff, the first and second stages of the rocket will separate. The second stage will continue its path to take Sentinel 6B to its final orbital location.

Our streaming coverage continues through deployment of the satellite and acquisition of signal.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the international Sentinel-6B spacecraft lifts off from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025.
NASA