Firing off the launch pad with more than a half-million pounds of thrust, a Vega rocket soared into space Monday night from French Guiana with Europe’s Sentinel 2B environmental satellite.
The 98-foot-tall (30-meter), four-stage rocket, powered by Italian and Ukrainian propulsion, took off at 10:49:24 p.m. local time in French Guiana (0149:24 GMT; 8:49:24 p.m. EST). Less than an hour later, the Vega launcher released Sentinel 2B into its planned orbit nearly 500 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth.
Read our full story for details on the Vega rocket’s ninth mission.
The images of posted below show the Vega rocket on the launch pad during retraction of the mobile gantry a few hours before flight, followed by the booster’s late-night blastoff.
Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – P. PironCredit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – P. PironCredit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – P. PironCredit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – P. PironCredit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2017Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2017Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2017Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2017Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – OVCredit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2017Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2017Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2017Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – OVCredit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. MartinCredit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2017Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – S. MartinCredit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2017Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2017
Follow the key events of the Soyuz rocket’s ascent into orbit from the Guiana Space Center with the first COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation, or CSG 1, radar observation satellite, the European Space Agency’s CHEOPS exoplanet telescope, and three CubeSats.
A solid-fueled Chinese Kuaizhou launcher positioned to compete for worldwide business took off Monday on its first commercial mission with three small satellites to collect high-definition video and test communications technologies.
An Airbus-owned, German-built outdoor science deck is set for launch Friday night from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule, heading for the International Space Station to make the orbiting research outpost more accessible for commercial space experiments.
