Jason-CS / Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is the follow-on to Jason-3. Jason-CS ensures continuity with Jason-3 with a first launch in 2020 (Jason-CS / Sentinel-6A) and 2025 (Jason-CS / Sentinel-6B). The Jason-CS / Sentinel-6 mission is part of the Copernicus Programme and is a result of international cooperation between Esa, Eumetsat, European Union, Noaa, Cnes and Nasa/JPL.

It follows ocean surface topography reference missions since 1992 with a high inclination orbit at 1336 km.

Jason-CS / Sentinel-6 uses a new satellite bus based on CryoSat, with a capability to mitigate orbital debris (de-orbiting within 25 years required). The Poseidon-4 altimeter operates in the so-called ‘interleaved mode’ that provides simultaneously pulse-limited waveforms (computed on-board and in line with previous reference missions) and Full Rate RAW waveforms that allow SAR processing on-ground!!