The new Sentinel‑5P air quality-monitoring satellite by the European Space Agency (ESA) has been launched into space from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

Russian space launch vehicle Rockot was used to deploy the satellite, which represents the first dedicated mission to monitor Earth’s atmosphere and the sixth Sentinel satellite under the ESA’s Copernicus programme.

Approximately 79min after lift-off, the 820kg satellite was placed into its final orbit.

Following its separation from the upper stage of the rocket, Sentinel-5P deployed its three solar panels and started sending signals back to Earth.

“The Sentinel-5P satellite is now safely in orbit so it is up to our mission control teams to steer this mission into its operational life and maintain it for the next seven years or more.”

The satellite’s first signal was received 93min after launch when it was passing over the Kiruna station in Sweden.

After receiving the signal, controllers at ESA’s operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, had established telemetry links, command and control with Sentinel‑5P to monitor the health of the satellite.

After completing early orbit, commissioning and other phases, the satellite is expected to commence full operations over the next six months.

ESA director general Jan Woerner said: “Launching the sixth Sentinel satellite for the Copernicus programme is testament to the extensive competence we have here at ESA, from its moment of conception to well into operations.

“The Sentinel-5P satellite is now safely in orbit so it is up to our mission control teams to steer this mission into its operational life and maintain it for the next seven years or more.”

Built by Airbus, Sentinel‑5P features the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) instrument to measure the presence of various gases, including nitrogen dioxide, ozone, formaldehyde, sulphur dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide and aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere.

TROPOMI is jointly developed by Airbus DS Netherlands for ESA and the Netherlands Space Office.

Sentinel-5P is also set to provide atmospheric data to the Copernicus programme until the Sentinel-5 instrument becomes operational in 2021 on the MetOp Second Generation satellite.