Photos: Vega launch lights up French Guiana

Monday night’s blastoff of a Vega rocket from the northern shore of South America dispatched a 2,500-pound Earth imaging satellite for Europe and put on a light show across the tropical spaceport at the edge of the Amazon.

The 98-foot-tall rocket launched at 10:51:58 p.m. local time Monday (0151:58 GMT Tuesday; 9:51:58 p.m. EDT Monday) from the Guiana Space Center. It released the camera-carrying Sentinel 2A environmental satellite into orbit nearly 500 miles above Earth about 55 minutes later.

Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin
Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – S. Martin
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG
Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG
Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon
Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon
Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon
Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015
Photo credit: ESA–M. Pedoussaut, 2015

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.