A Russian Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying a European weather satellite was delivered on Friday, Sept 14 morning to a launch pad at the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan in preparation for launch on September 17, Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said, according to RIA Novosti.

“The rocket with Fregat booster and Metor-B satellite has been set on the launch pad 31,” Roscosmos said on its website.

Metop-B is the second in a series of three European polar orbiting weather satellites, designed and manufactured by Astrium to provide a broad range of measurements vital to weather forecasting and climate monitoring.

Its predecessor, Metor-A, was orbited in October 2006. The last satellite in the series, Metor-C, is expected to be launched in 2017.

Weighing 4,100 kg, Metop-B has been designed to operate in orbit for five years.

Each Metop satellite carries a set of instruments provided by the United States and a new generation of European instruments that offer improved remote sensing capabilities to both meteorologists and climatologists.

They alone possess the capability to provide a continual flow of weather and climate data spanning the whole planet, according to the European Space Agency.