Division Development and Procurement of the Sentinel-1, -2, -3 C/D units

ESA shall be responsible for the procurement, development and Flight Acceptance Review of the Sentinel-1, -2, -3 C and D units. In addition, the launch preparation activities of the –C units shall be covered by Copernicus, in case they occur before 31 December 2021.

The C and D units shall be procured with equivalent technical specifications as the A and B units to ensure technical and operational consistency. However, the development of the A, B and C, D units shall take into account hardware obsolescence due to the time difference with the development of the A and B units. The Sentinel-1 C and D units should be equipped with an Automatic Identification System (AIS) instrument to augment the SAR payload data for ship marine traffic applications and all C and D units shall be equipped with GNSS receivers. The Sentinel-1 and -2 C and D units shall include an Optical Communication Payload and the Sentinel-3 C and D units shall include a DORIS payload, all procured as part of the contract and financed within Copernicus.