Take a walk around the Ariane 5 launch pad in French Guiana after the 16-story rocket arrived at the complex for liftoff Thursday with four European Galileo navigation satellites.
Read our launch preview for more information on the mission.
Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016Credit: ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – G. BarbasteCredit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – G. BarbasteCredit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – G. Barbaste
A European Vega rocket is scheduled to launch Tuesday from a tropical spaceport in South America carrying two Israeli-built satellites for the Italian military and a French-Israeli environmental observatory.
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.
Iridium has secured a launch for five more of its next-generation communications craft in a rideshare arrangement with two U.S.-German research satellites aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket by early 2018.
