An Antonov cargo plane An-124 was a guest in Munich last week. The Antonov was traveling on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA) and picked up the climate monitoring satellite “EarthCARE”. The satellite is scheduled to launch into space from the SpaceX launch site in Vandenberg, California, in May. It took a whole day to load the satellite, which weighs around 2.3 tons, into the cargo plane, as the Munich Airport press office announced.
The satellite, constructed by Airbus, is designed to study the role clouds and aerosols play in reflecting solar radiation into space and capturing infrared radiation emitted from the Earth’s surface. The Antonov came from the Iraqi city of Erbil and landed in Munich on Thursday afternoon and continued towards California on Saturday morning.
With a wingspan of over 74 meters, a length of 69 meters and an empty weight of 173 tons, the Antonov counts An-124 one of the world’s largest transport aircraft.