{"id":11123,"date":"2022-12-20T00:10:35","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T16:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/two-airbus-earth-imaging-satellites-poised-for-launch-on-vega-c-rocket\/"},"modified":"2022-12-20T00:10:35","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T16:10:35","slug":"two-airbus-earth-imaging-satellites-poised-for-launch-on-vega-c-rocket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/two-airbus-earth-imaging-satellites-poised-for-launch-on-vega-c-rocket\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Airbus Earth-imaging satellites poised for launch on Vega C rocket"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
A Vega C rocket on its launch pad in French Guiana with the Pl\u00e9iades Neo Earth-imaging satellites inside the payload fairing. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace\/S. Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two Pl\u00e9iades Neo Earth observation satellites are set to join Airbus\u2019s constellation of high-resolution optical imagers with a launch Tuesday night from French Guiana on the first commercial flight of Europe\u2019s Vega C rocket, a mission delayed from November to change out suspect hardware on the launcher\u2019s payload fairing.<\/p>\n

Liftoff is set for 9:47 p.m. EST Tuesday (0147 GMT Wednesday) from the Guiana Space Center in South America, marking the 22nd flight of Europe\u2019s solid-fueled Vega rocket family, and the second in the uprated Vega C configuration.<\/p>\n

The 114-foot-tall (34.8-meter) Vega C rocket will propel itself north from the European-run spaceport in French Guiana, heading for a polar orbit with the two Pl\u00e9iades Neo Earth-imaging satellites for Airbus. The satellites each weigh about a ton at liftoff, and are stacked one on top of the other inside the Vega C\u2019s payload shroud.<\/p>\n

The mission Tuesday night, designated VV22, will be the first commercial flight of the new Vega C rocket configuration, following the Vega C\u2019s inaugural test flight July 13 sponsored by the European Space Agency. Arianespace, the Vega rocket\u2019s commercial operator, is in charge of the launch of Airbus\u2019s Pl\u00e9iades Neo 5 and 6 satellites.<\/p>\n

The launch was delayed from Nov. 24 to replace faulty hardware in the pyrotechnic system responsible for jettisoning the Vega C rocket\u2019s payload fairing a few minutes after liftoff. The aerodynamic fairing encloses the Pl\u00e9iades Neo 5 and 6 satellites during the rocket\u2019s climb through the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

The Vega C rocket replaces the old Vega rocket\u2019s solid-fueled first and second stages with wider, heavier motor casings. The third stage motor is unchanged, and the restartable liquid-fueled fourth stage has the same type of engine but carries more propellant. The Vega C\u2019s prime contractor, the Italian aerospace company Avio, says the upgraded rocket is capable of hauling up to 5,070 pounds (2.3 metric tons) of payload mass to a 435-mile-high (700-kilometer) polar orbit, an increase over the 3,300-pound (1.5-metric ton) capacity of the basic model of the Vega rocket.<\/p>\n

The upgraded Vega C is also taller than the older Vega rocket configuration, and has a larger payload fairing provided by the Swiss company Beyond Gravity, formerly known as RUAG Space.<\/p>\n

The higher-performing Vega C can carry two of Airbus\u2019s Pl\u00e9iades Neo Earth observation satellites on a single mission. The first two satellites in the four-satellite Pl\u00e9iades Neo constellation launched on separate Vega rockets in 2021.<\/p>\n

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The Pl\u00e9iades Neo 5 and 6 satellites stacked one on top of the other before encapsulation inside the Vega C rocket\u2019s payload fairing. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace\/P. Baudon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Pl\u00e9iades Neo satellites feature improvements over Airbus\u2019s first-generation Pl\u00e9iades Earth observation satellites launched in 2011 and 2012. Airbus says it entirely funded the development of the Pl\u00e9iades Neo satellites, with intentions to sell the imagery commercially to private companies and government users. The company announced the Pl\u00e9iades Neo program in 2016, and Airbus assembled the Pl\u00e9iades Neo spacecraft at its facility in Toulouse, France.<\/p>\n

The four-satellite program is costing Airbus about 600 million euros, or roughly $700 million.<\/p>\n

The Pl\u00e9iades Neo satellites can produce optical imagery of Earth\u2019s surface with a resolution of 11.8 inches, or 30 centimeters, according to Airbus. That\u2019s good enough to resolve features such as vehicles and road markings. The first two Pl\u00e9iades satellites launched more than a decade ago have 19.6-inch, or 50-centimeter, resolution.<\/p>\n

Airbus has released imagery from the first two Pl\u00e9iades Neo satellites showcasing their capabilities, picturing lava flows from volcanic eruptions, large-scale music and sports events, and views of aircraft and rockets at airports and spaceports.<\/p>\n

The imaging resolution of Airbus\u2019s four Pl\u00e9iades Neo satellites is comparable to the resolution provided by Maxar\u2019s six-satellite WorldView Legion surveillance satellites due to begin launching next year. The companies are competitors, providing the highest-resolution Earth observation imagery on the global commercial market.<\/p>\n

With the help of laser inter-satellite communications links, the Pl\u00e9iades Neo satellites will be able to respond rapidly to tasking requests within 30 to 40 minutes, according to Airbus.<\/p>\n

A single Pl\u00e9iades Neo satellite, using a new agile pointing capability enabled by control moment gyroscopes, can turn side-to-side to observe the same location every two days. Once all four satellites are in orbit, the constellation will be able to image any location on Earth twice a day.<\/p>\n

Each Pl\u00e9iades Neo spacecraft is designed to operate for at least 10 years. One Pl\u00e9iades Neo satellite can collect images covering an area of nearly 200,000 square miles (500,000 square kilometers) every day, Airbus says.<\/p>\n

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A view of NASA\u2019s Space Launch System moon at Kennedy Space Center in Florida earlier this year, captured by one of Airbus\u2019s Pl\u00e9iades Neo satellites. Credit: Airbus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe are just one step away from completing this pioneering constellation, which already covers one million square kilometers per day and delivers images at 30 centimeter native resolution,\u201d said Fran\u00e7ois Lombard, head of intelligence at Airbus Defense and Space. \u201cWith this upcoming launch, we will double our capacity and be able to respond to our customers\u2019 needs even faster, providing the best quality in the market for a wide range of military and commercial applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

The applications for Pl\u00e9iades Neo imagery include urban planning and city management, climate change assessments, and determining the impacts of pollution. The satellites can also be tasked to assess the damage from natural disasters.<\/p>\n

It will take about 1 hour and 44 minutes for the Vega C rocket to deploy the Pl\u00e9iades Neo 5 and 6 satellites into a polar, or north-south, orbit about 385 miles (620 kilometers) above Earth.<\/p>\n

The first stage of the Vega-C is named the P120C, an enlarged, higher-thrust, longer-burning rocket motor than the P80 first stage flown on the previous version of Vega. The P120C motor, also slated for use as a strap-on booster for Europe\u2019s new Ariane 6 rocket, will fire for about 2 minutes and 26 seconds, generating a million pounds of thrust.<\/p>\n

The Vega-C\u2019s second stage, the Zefiro 40, will ignite its solid rocket motor for a two-minute firing. The Zefiro 40 produces about 293,000 pounds of thrust.<\/p>\n

The Zefiro 9 third stage motor  will ignite will 70,000 pounds of thrust, and will burn out nearly seven minutes after liftoff. The Vega C\u2019s 10.8-foot-wide (3.3-meter) payload fairing, wider than shroud flown on past Vega rockets, will jettison during the third stage burn. The larger fairing allows larger satellites, or more small payloads, to fit into the rocket\u2019s upper compartment.<\/p>\n

The Vega C\u2019s upper stage, called the AVUM+, will take over the mission to place the Pl\u00e9iades Neo 5 and 6 satellites into orbit. The AVUM+ upper stage, with a Ukrainian-made liquid-fueled engine, will fire two times before deploying the Pl\u00e9iades Neo 6 satellite into orbit about 56 minutes into the mission. Another burn by the upper stage main engine will position the rocket for separation of the Pl\u00e9iades Neo 5 spacecraft in a slightly different orbit 1 hour and 44 minutes after liftoff.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Vega C rocket on its launch pad in French Guiana with the Pl\u00e9iades Neo Earth-imaging satellites inside the payload fairing. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace\/S. Martin Two Pl\u00e9iades Neo Earth observation satellites are set to join Airbus\u2019s constellation of high-resolution optical imagers with a launch Tuesday night from French Guiana on the first commercial flight of Europe\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}