FLEX – 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).

Next-gen astronaut Moon rovers aim for deployment ahead of Artemis 4 crew arrival

June 26, 2026 Will Robinson-Smith

On May 26, NASA selected two lunar terrain vehicle providers to create iterative versions of their prior LTV designs that can deploy to the Moon in more timely and cost-effective manner.

NASA unveils three teams to compete for crewed lunar rover demonstration mission

April 4, 2024 Will Robinson-Smith

NASA awarded the so-called ‘Lunar Terrain Vehicle Service’ contract and classified it as an “indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, milestone-based LTVS contract with firm-fixed-price task orders.” The agency said it “has a combined maximum potential value of $4.6 billion for all awards.”

Europe to develop satellite to map plant fluorescence

November 20, 2015 Stephen Clark

The European Space Agency has selected a satellite mission to monitor the health of global vegetation over an atmospheric research project to track carbon in Earth’s atmosphere, officials announced Thursday.