The Vega rocket achieves a new mission from Kourou - Maxisciences

European Vega rocket left that night the launch pad and was put into orbit two small observation and academic micro-satellite satellites, Arianespace said.

at 23h06 Kourou time (2:06 GMT) that the European Vega rocket darted from the Guiana Space Centre. Within two hours of the mission, the launcher into orbit two small satellites observing the Earth, the European Proba-V and Vietnamese VNREDSat-1 and an Estonian university micro-satellite: ESTCube-1, only one, 3 kg.

Initially, the launch would take place in the night from Friday to Saturday, but it was eventually postponed due to unpredictable weather. A second trial had been scheduled for tonight and seems he was correct. According to the team, everything went smoothly and the gear were properly placed in orbit. The Proba-V satellite is intended to map the vegetation cover and its variations in the earth’s surface.

satellite has in fact an improved version of vegetation, a tool that equips the French satellite SPOT 4 and 5, he must pursue the mission. Proba-V also loads of new instruments to probe the space in search of particles and radiation. For this, it is especially equipped with a chip originally designed for the LHC (particle accelerator) at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research).

A new bet won

VNREDSat-1 it was designed by Astrium on behalf of the Academy of Science and Technology of Vietnam. It will enable countries to better monitor the effects of climate change, predict natural disasters and take appropriate action. This space tool will also give him the opportunity to optimize the management of its resources. Placed in orbit at 665 km altitude, VNREDSat-1 can provide images with a resolution ranging from 2.5 to 10 meters. Finally, the micro-satellite ESTCube-1 contribute to space research in Estonia by testing in space electric solar sail.

So once again won a bet for Vega who is the market for small payloads, mainly institutional observation satellites of the Earth. Able to carry up to 1.5 tons into low orbit (700 km altitude), the rocket allows Europeans to enter this sector so far strongly dominated by Russian missiles converted from Rockot or Dnieper kind.

Vega rocket rounds out the range of rockets available Arianespace Ariane 5 ECA (up to 9.5 tonnes into geostationary transfer orbit) in mind and the Russian Soyuz (up to 3 tons).