A new era of weather forecasting begins

The Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite, set to revolutionise short-term weather forecasting in Europe, lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket at 21:30 CET (17:30 local time in Kourou) on 13 December from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. 

The satellite separated from the rocket 34 minutes later and then Malindi ground station in Kenya received the signal from MTG-I1, indicating the satellite is in good health.