14/04/2022 (Agence Europe) – During a press briefing on Wednesday 13 April, reported by the specialist website SpaceNews, the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), Josef Aschbacher, indicated that his services were making progress in finding the origin of the failure that occurred in December (see EUROPE 12914/14) on the Sentinel 1-B satellite of the European earth observation programme Copernicus. During a test, the satellite antenna power supply turned on for 4.4 seconds, he said. He added that ESA will continue its efforts to restore the Sentinel-1B payload to working order until the Agency is “100% sure” that it cannot be returned to service. “Still, it’s fair to assume that there’s a likelihood that Sentinel-1B may not be recovered”, he added. ESA plans to launch a replacement satellite, Sentinel-1C, in the first half of 2023 (see EUROPE 12929/27). (PH)