The Vega-C rocket, a more powerful evolution of Vega, took off on Wednesday July 13 from the Kourou space base, in French Guiana, for its inaugural launch, during which it must place several scientific payloads in orbit at an altitude of 5800 km. .
The European launcher under Italian prime contractor, rose above the launch pad at 1:13 p.m. GMT, quickly piercing the thick cloud cover above the Guyanese jungle, according to the live broadcast of the European Space Agency, program manager.
“
Nominal trajectory, calm piloting, normal onboard parameters,
” the operations manager announced as the rocket rose into the sky.
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Ariane 6's little sister
The launch took place two hours late, the countdown having been interrupted twice less than two minutes before takeoff for technical checks after anomalies were reported.
Vega-C, C for "
consolidation
" according to its industrial prime contractor, the Italian Avio, is an improved version of the Vega light launcher, fired 20 times (with two failures) since 2012. With 35 m in height, Vega -C is a little bigger and wider than Vega and can put into polar reference orbit at 700 km altitude up to 2.2 tons of satellites, compared to 1.5 tons for Vega.
With its increased performance, Vega-C can address 90% of the market for satellites in low orbit at a few hundred kilometers altitude, compared to half for Vega, according to Avio.
This light launcher is considered the little sister of Ariane 6. The two programs were launched in 2014. Vega-C will be able to carry out some of the missions previously assigned to the medium Russian Soyuz launcher.
The latter was, until the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, also marketed by Arianespace and fired from Kourou.
Two and a half minutes after liftoff, the rocket separated safely from its P120C first stage.
The P120C is also used as a booster for Ariane 6, a rationalization allowing Europeans to develop a family of launchers that is more competitive against American competition.
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A little over two hours after launch, the fourth stage, the Avum+ module, is to release at an altitude of 5800 km several scientific loads developed by universities, which have found a place on board free of charge because it is a flight rocket qualification.
In addition to four “
cubesats
” weighing a few kilograms, these include LARES-2, a 300 kg metallic sphere used to study the effect of gravity in orbit.