The European Space Agency’s first polar-orbiting weather satellite, MetOp-A, launched into space today after numerous delays. A Soyuz-Fregat rocket carrying the 4.1-tonne satellite lifted off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, at 16:28 GMT. The satellite is now placed in an 850-kilometer orbit around the poles. Since July, five previous attempts to launch the new-generation satellite had been scrubbed by technical hitches and poor weather. MetOp-A is the most sophisticated Earth-observation satellite ever built, with 12 instruments to record temperature, humidity, wind speed and ozone cover across the globe, monitor the environment in space and listen out for signals from ships and aircraft in distress.
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Meteorological_missions/MetOp