How to watch Metop-SG A3

Thu, Dec 30, 9:00 PM GMT-3

Fri, Dec 31, 00:00 UTC

Ariane 62 · Arianespace · Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana

Add this launch to your calendar (.ics) · every launch from Kourou

How firm is the date: Time set, not yet confirmed
Date history: No date change recorded for this launch.
At the pad when the window opens: Night launch. The sun is well below the horizon. The engine flame is visible from far away on a clear night; the plume is not lit by the sun.

Watch online

Watch in person

Straight-line distance from each place to the Kourou pad we use for geometry; what you can see follows from the distance. The public viewing spots, fees and road closures are in the Kourou viewing guide.

Kourou10 mi (16 km), look NW
Full view of the pad and ascent. The sound of liftoff reaches you about 47 seconds after you see it.
Sinnamary16 mi (26 km), look SE
The whole ascent, low on the horizon.
Cayenne38 mi (61 km), look NW
The whole ascent, low on the horizon.

What to expect

We have not checked this mission's landing plan by hand. If a booster flies back to a landing zone on land, its landing brings a sonic boom; the provider's mission page says where the booster lands.
Sound travels about a kilometre every 3 seconds (a mile every 5), so at a distance you see liftoff before you hear it.

Will it go on time?

A launch date is a "no earlier than" target. Weather, a technical hold, the range or a boat in the hazard area can each stop a count on the day, and the provider then names a new time. We do not publish launch odds we cannot back; here is what we recorded.

1 launch has flown from Kourou since we started recording date changes on Aug 29, 2026; 0 of them had the date or time moved at least once after we first recorded it, and 0 slipped by a day or more. That is too few launches to call it a rate.
Of the 39 launches that have flown from every site we track since we started recording date changes on Aug 29, 2026, 24 (62%) had the date or time moved at least once after we first recorded it, and 6 (15%) slipped by a day or more.

Sources

Launch time, status and pad: the Launch Library 2 manifest as synced by SpaceNexus; times move, and this page follows them.
Day or night: computed from the sun's position at the pad at the time shown. Distances: computed from coordinates.

The launch page: countdown, stream, date history →Every Kourou launch this month →Where to watch at Kourou →Which launches slip, and by how much →

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Watch online

Watch in person

What to expect

Will it go on time?

Sources