New launch attempt Vega - Le Figaro

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second shooting of the small European Vega rocket, postponed Saturday due to inclement above the Kourou space center in French Guiana winds, has been rescheduled for tonight. “If favorable weather conditions continue, the lift-off is scheduled on the night of May 6 to 7″ 06 to 04 hours, Paris time, Arianespace said Monday.

his second mission after the success of its inaugural shot on February 13, 2012, Vega has put into orbit two small Earth observation satellites and a university microsatellite. Fifty-five minutes and 27 seconds after takeoff, it will separate its first passenger: the Proba-V satellite, built by QinetiQ Space Belgium, on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA). This small observation probe provide for two and a half years at least information that will map the vegetation cover and its variations in the earth’s surface. All thanks to reduced and improved version of the Vegetation instrument which equips the famous SPOT satellites.

Then comes the turn of VNREDSat-1 satellite designed by Astrium on behalf of the Academy of Science and Technology of Vietnam. Expected to last five years, he enrolled in the will of the Vietnamese government to create a space infrastructure allowing the countries of South-East Asia to better monitor the effects of climate change, predict natural disasters and take appropriate measures, but also optimize the management of its resources.

nano-satellite Estonian

Finally, Vega close the ball by placing into orbit ESTCube-1 nano-satellite designed and built by a team of students from the National University of Tartu, Estonia. The first Estonian satellite will test an electric solar sail in space for new concepts of space propulsion.

Opened in February 2012, the Vega light launcher full launch services offered by Europe. Vega is the third pitcher in the range operated by Arianespace from Kourou, alongside heavyweight Ariane 5 ECA (up to 9.5 tonnes into geostationary transfer orbit) and the mythical Russian Soyuz (up to 3 tons), which already several shots to his credit from French Guiana.

Able to carry up to 1.5 tons in low earth orbit (700 km altitude), Vega is the market for small payloads, mainly institutional observation satellites of the Earth.