Europe’s solid-fueled Vega booster vaulted away from a launch pad in the South American jungle late Thursday and deftly delivered five sharp-eyed Earth observation satellites into two different orbits for the Peruvian government and a Google-owned mapping company.
Two orbits. Five satellites. Five upper stage burns. Follow the key events scheduled during the European Vega rocket’s launch of the PeruSat 1 high-resolution reconnaissance satellite and four commercial eyes-in-the-sky owned by Google’s Terra Bella imaging company.
A solid-fueled Vega rocket blasted off from French Guiana on Thursday with five Earth observation satellites for Peru and the Google subsidiary Terra Bella. The four-stage booster fired away from its tropical launch pad right on time at 9:43 p.m. EDT (0143 GMT Friday).
Five Earth-imaging spacecraft for the Peruvian government and Google’s Terra Bella satellite subsidiary are enclosed inside the nose cone of a Vega rocket for liftoff Thursday from French Guiana.
Arianespace plans 11 launches from French Guiana this year, including eight flights by the heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket with up to a dozen large telecommunications satellites and four spacecraft for Europe’s Galileo navigation system.