A Rockot launcher today successfully lofted into orbit the European Space Agency’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite and Project for Onboard Autonomy (Proba-2) from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

SMOS is due to be operational in about six months after in-orbit check out, while Proba-2 should already be ready in about two months.

The 658-kg SMOS is the second in ESA’s Earth Explorer series and will be used for climate monitoring. ESA released this animation of how the spacecraft will work:

ESA says SMOS is the first satellite to globally map sea surface salinity and monitor soil moisture. The main instrument is a inerferometric radiometer to passively monitor water cycles. The satellite is controlled from the French space agency CNES’s Toulouse, facility.

SMOS was developed by ESA, CNES and Spain’s CDTI is based on Thales Alenia Space’s Proteus small satellite platform.

The 135-kg Proba-2 is designed to validate advanced technologies. Among the 17 onboard are miniaturized for future probes and a wide-angle charged coupled device wide-angle (120 deg.) camera. The spacecraft also has four instruments to observe the sun and plasma environment in orbit, ESA says.