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Space technicians were preparing on April 03 2014 for the launch of the first satellite in an ambitious European project to monitor Earth for climate change, pollution and deforestation and help disaster relief. Sentinel-1A, a satellite designed to scan the Earth with cloud-penetrating radar, is set to lift off at 2102 GMT aboard a Soyuz rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, the European Space Agency (ESA) said. The 2.3-tonne satellite is the first in a string of hi-tech eyes in the sky that will build on the success of Envisat, a landmark satellite in Earth monitoring, whose mission ended in 2012.