Europe’s LISA Pathfinder spacecraft, carrying high-tech thrusters and ultra-sensitive motion sensors to be used in a future gravitational wave detection mission, blasted off from French Guiana early Thursday aboard a nearly 100-foot-tall (30-meter) Vega rocket.
After lifting off at 0404 GMT Thursday (1:04 a.m. French Guiana time; 11:04 p.m. EDT Wednesday), the four-stage Vega booster turned east and accelerated into orbit with LISA Pathfinder, deploying the satellite an hour and 45 minutes later.
Read our full launch story for details on LISA Pathfinder’s pioneering mission.
Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – S. MartinPhoto credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – S. MartinPhoto credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSGPhoto credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – JM GuillonPhoto credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – JM GuillonPhoto credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – S. MartinPhoto credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – JM GuillonPhoto credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2015Photo credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon
The European-built Solar Orbiter spacecraft was installed on top of its United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 launcher Friday at Cape Canaveral, ready for final charging and checkouts before liftoff Feb. 9 to finally begin a more than $1.5 billion science mission first approved by the European Space Agency nearly 20 years ago.
A Soyuz rocket lifted off Sunday from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East with 36 internet satellites built on Florida’s Space Coast for OneWeb, bringing the company’s fleet to 182 spacecraft, more than a quarter of the way to building out a constellation of nearly 650 orbiting relay nodes.
Swiss-based in-orbit servicing startup ClearSpace has contracted Arianespace to launch its first debris removal mission to capture and deorbit a piece of space debris.
