Tag: Arianespace
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Arianespace targets early 2021 for Vega return-to-flight
File photo of a Vega launch in 2018. Credit: ESA – S. Corvaja 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 and European Space Agency…
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Arianespace launches 36 OneWeb satellites from Russia for the U.K.
Arianespace, contracted through OneWeb, used a Russian Soyuz 2.1b rocket with a Fregat upper stage to place 36 new OneWeb satellites into orbit for the British government. The move resumed OneWeb launch operations after the company itself went bankrupt earlier this year. Liftoff occurred at 07:26:26 EST (12:26:26 UTC) on Friday, 18 December from Site…
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OneWeb satellites awaiting launch on Soyuz rocket Friday
The next 36 OneWeb satellites were encapsulated inside the Soyuz rocket’s payload fairing before launch Friday. Credit: Roscosmos After a nine-month hiatus caused by bankruptcy, the deployment of OneWeb’s broadband network will resume Friday with the launch of the company’s next 36 satellites on a Soyuz rocket from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East.…
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Soyuz rocket launches Emirati military satellite after lengthy delay
Credit: Arianespace After months of delays caused by launch vehicle issues and the coronavirus pandemic, a Russian Soyuz rocket and Fregat upper stage took off from South America and delivered the French-built Falcon Eye 2 military observation satellite to an on-target orbit Tuesday night for the United Arab Emirates. The kerosene-fueled Soyuz ST-A launcher lifted…
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Europe and Russia launch Emirati military/civilian Earth imaging satellite
Arianespace has used — with Russia’s support — a Soyuz ST-A rocket to launch a joint military and civilian Earth imaging satellite for the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces from the Guiana Space Centre near Kourou, French Guiana. Liftoff of the Falcon Eye 2 satellite occurred at 20:33:28 EST on Tuesday, 1 December (01:33:28 UTC…
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Live coverage: Soyuz launches Falcon Eye 2 satellite on third attempt
Live coverage of the countdown and launch of a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana with the Falcon Eye 2 military reconnaissance satellite for the United Arab Emirates. Text updates will appear automatically below. Follow us on Twitter. Arianespace’s live video stream begins at 0118 GMT (8:18 p.m. EST) and will be available here. If you appreciate…
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Soyuz rocket ready to launch with UAE’s Falcon Eye 2 military satellite
A Soyuz rocket rolls out to its launch pad in French Guiana in preparation for liftoff with the Falcon Eye 2 military reconnaissance satellite. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – P. Piron A Soyuz booster is set for launch from French Guiana Sunday night with a European-built military reconnaissance satellite for the…
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European Vega rocket suffers second failure in three launches
A Vega rocket took off Monday night from French Guiana with two European satellites, but the launcher failed to deploy the payloads into orbit. Credit: Arianespace A European Vega rocket crashed back to Earth shortly after launching from French Guiana carrying a Spanish land imaging satellite and a French research probe with a combined value…
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Arianespace traces cause of Vega launch failure to ‘human error’
This frame grab from Arianespace’s live launch webcast shows an animation of the Vega rocket’s AVUM upper stage with the SEOSAT-Ingenio Earth observation satellite. Credit: Arianespace 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…
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Vega rocket poised for launch with satellites for Spain and France
The SEOSat-Ingenio Earth observation satellite is seen mounted on top of the Vega rocket’s Vespa dual-payload adapter before encapsulation inside the payload shroud. The French Taranis satellite is contained inside the Vespa structure. Credit: Airbus A Spanish Earth observation spacecraft and a French research satellite to probe luminous phenomena above thunderstorms are packaged inside the…