An Ariane 5 Generic launcher liftsoff with the weather satellite MSG-1 onboard from Europe's Spaceport, French Guiana, on 28 August 2002

Almost 25 years after the November 1977 launch of the very first Meteosat, the first representative of the next generation (MSG-1) of European weather satellites has been placed in orbit and is being made ready to lend new dimensions to the monitoring of our planet's climate.