Avio – Spaceflight Now

Avio launches pair of climate monitoring European spacecraft to study plants, oceans and atmospheric changes

September 15, 2026 Will Robinson-Smith

The mission, with the shorthand VV30, is the second launch of a Vega-C rocket managed solely by Avio without Arianespace. Liftoff from Ensemble de Lancement Vega at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana happened at 10:21 p.m. local time (9:21 p.m. EDT / 0121 UTC / 3:21 a.m. CEST).

Launch preview: Avio to launch spacecraft to monitor plant health and ocean conditions

September 14, 2026 Will Robinson-Smith

The mission, with the shorthand VV30, is the second launch of a Vega-C rocket managed solely by Avio without Arianespace. Liftoff from Ensemble de Lancement Vega at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana is scheduled for 10:21 p.m. local time (9:21 p.m. EDT / 0121 UTC / 3:21 a.m. CEST).

Vega-C return to flight launch slips a day to allow for ‘further precautionary checks’

November 28, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

The launch of the European Commission’s Sentinel-1C satellite is now targeting no earlier than Wednesday, Dec. 4, from the European Spaceport in French Guiana. The next update on launch preparations are set to be published on Friday, Nov. 29.

“Big relief” as Europe’s Vega rocket returns to service with successful launch

April 29, 2021 Stephen Clark

A European Vega rocket deployed six commercial satellites in orbit, including a new Airbus-built eye-in-the-sky for high-resolution Earth-imaging, on a successful launch from French Guiana on Wednesday night after two of the last three Vega missions failed.

Live coverage: Arianespace launches Vega rocket from French Guiana

April 28, 2021 Stephen Clark

After two of the last three Vega rocket launches ended in failure, Arianespace launched another Vega launcher from French Guiana at 9:50 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0150 GMT Thursday) with Airbus’s Pléiades Neo 3 commercial Earth observation satellite and five secondary payloads.

Vega rocket’s return-to-flight launch set for Wednesday night

April 28, 2021 Stephen Clark

Six satellites are set to ride a light-class European Vega rocket into orbit from French Guiana on Wednesday night, the first Vega launch since a failure last year that officials attributed to human error.

James Webb, OneWeb highlight Arianespace’s 2021 launch schedule

January 11, 2021 Stephen Clark

The planned Halloween launch of the James Webb Space Telescope — one of eight Ariane 5 launches left before the rocket’s retirement — and a series of flights to build out OneWeb’s satellite internet network highlight Arianespace’s schedule this year.

Arianespace targets early 2021 for Vega return-to-flight

December 18, 2020 Stephen Clark

Presenting the results of an inquiry into a European Vega rocket failure last month, officials said Friday that misleading instructions and inadequate preflight checks caused teams to overlook wrongly-installed cables on the launcher’s upper stage steering system. Arianespace aims to resume Vega launches before the end of March.

Arianespace traces cause of Vega launch failure to ‘human error’

November 17, 2020 Stephen Clark

Inverted cables on the Vega rocket’s upper stage control system apparently caused the launcher to tumble minutes after liftoff Monday night, a failure that resulted in the loss of a Spanish Earth observation satellite and a French research probe, Arianespace officials said Tuesday.

European Vega rocket suffers second failure in three launches

November 17, 2020 Stephen Clark

A European Vega rocket crashed back to Earth shortly after launching from French Guiana carrying a Spanish land imaging satellite and a French research probe with a combined value of nearly $400 million.