Biomass Satellite Begins Journey to French Guiana Ahead of April 2025 Launch

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Airbus-built Biomass satellite has departed Toulouse and is now en route to Kourou, French Guiana, where it is set to launch in April 2025. This Earth Explorer satellite represents ESA’s flagship mission to measure forest biomass and assess terrestrial carbon stocks and fluxes from space.

Biomass will carry the first-ever space-borne P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a groundbreaking technology designed to create exceptionally accurate maps of forest biomass across tropical, temperate, and boreal regions. The satellite will orbit at an altitude of 666km, providing valuable data on forest loss and regrowth that is not possible to obtain with ground-based measurements.

Significance of the Mission

Alain Fauré, head of space systems at Airbus Defence and Space, emphasized the importance of this milestone, stating: “Shipping this flagship mission is a major milestone after years of hard work and dedication from all our teams. The satellite’s groundbreaking technology will enable climatologists to accurately assess carbon stocks and fluxes from space and improve the understanding of the part that forests play in regulating climate.”

The satellite’s deployable antenna measures 12 x 15 meters and will capture the reflected radar data needed to map forest biomass on a global scale. Biomass data will help assess the impact of forest loss—due to activities such as logging and burning—as well as forest regrowth, providing critical insights into the state of the world’s forests and their role in combating climate change.

Team Effort and International Collaboration

The Biomass satellite was built at Airbus’s Stevenage facility, with extensive testing conducted in Toulouse. The successful test campaign involved engineers from Stevenage, Toulouse, and Airbus in Friedrichshafen (Germany), as well as a broader network of industrial partners. Over 50 companies from 20 countries have collaborated on the satellite’s development and testing. The team is now preparing for the in-orbit commissioning phase and the operational phase of the mission.

To support the mission, a separate team is overseeing the delivery of a ground calibration transponder, located in New Norcia, Australia. This component will play a crucial role in the mission’s ability to calibrate and validate the satellite’s data once it reaches orbit.

Launch and Mission Duration

Biomass is scheduled for launch aboard a Vega-C rocket from Kourou in French Guiana in April 2025. Once in orbit, the satellite will operate for a planned five years, continuously monitoring global forest biomass to provide invaluable data on climate change and carbon cycle dynamics.

This mission will greatly enhance our ability to monitor and understand the Earth’s forests, a critical component of the global ecosystem, and will provide crucial data to help address the challenges of climate change and environmental sustainability.