Vega – Spaceflight Now

Rideshare mission on deck for penultimate Vega rocket as Vega-C successor remains sidelined

October 6, 2023 Will Robinson-Smith

A pair of Earth observation satellites along with ten auxiliary payloads will launch aboard Arianespace’s penultimate Vega rocket into sun-synchronous orbit on Friday. Vega lifted off at 9:36 p.m. EDT (0138 UTC) on Sunday after a two-day delay.

Swiss company selects Arianespace to launch first space debris removal mission

May 27, 2023 Clive Simpson

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.

“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.

Arianespace announces competition for free nanosatellite launch

April 14, 2021 Stephen Clark

Arianespace announced this week it is organizing a contest open to startups, labs, and universities for a free launch of a nanosatellite on a future rideshare mission, likely on an Ariane 6 or Vega rocket.

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.

U.S. companies, led by SpaceX, launched more than any other country in 2020

January 5, 2021 Stephen Clark

Leading all other nations, U.S. launch providers flew 44 missions in 2020 that aimed to place payloads in Earth orbit or deep space, with 40 successes. China followed with 35 successful orbital missions in 39 launch attempts.

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.