If You Could Ride on the Outside of a Rocket, Here’s Your View While Blasting Into Space

Imagine clinging on to the side of a rocket, somehow able to hang on despite the high speeds and diminishing oxygen. Looking down, this is what you’ll see — the view in the video above. This incredible sequence shows Sentinel-1a during its initial climb to orbit last week and, if you wait long enough, you can even see the separation of the third stage.

“Arianespace’s successful Soyuz Flight VS07 — which deployed Sentinel-1A to Sun-synchronous orbit — gave the world a front-row seat in space,” the company stated on YouTube. “Cameras mounted on the Soyuz’ Fregat upper stage captured the spectacular footage … as Sentinel-1A was separated at approximately 700 km [434 miles] above the Earth to commence its life in orbit.”

Sentinel-1a is the first of a series of environmental monitoring satellites overseen by the European Space Agency, a set that promises views of the Earth in high-definition.

Read more about the mission here. You can also see more video views of Sentinel-1a in this story.