October 30, 2019 – EarthCARE (Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer) satellite – the sixth mission in ESA’s Earth Explorer program – will advance our understanding of the role clouds and aerosols play in reflecting incident solar radiation back into space and trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earth’s surface. EarthCARE is a joint collaborative satellite mission conducted between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) that delivers the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) instrument. ESA is responsible for the entire system – including the Spacecraft, three instruments including ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID), a Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) and a Broad-Band Radiometer (BBR), plus the Launcher and Ground Segment (with exception of the CPR data segment). The EarthCARE mission will utilize a Soyuz launch vehicle, with the launch period starting in June 2022 from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana (South America). The satellite will have a mass at liftoff of approximately 2,350 kg and will circle Earth in a Sun-synchronous polar orbit, crossing the equator in the early afternoon to optimise daylight conditions, at an altitude of 390 km.