{"id":13280,"date":"2019-03-21T20:52:46","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T12:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/vega-launch-timeline-with-prisma\/"},"modified":"2019-03-21T20:52:46","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T12:52:46","slug":"vega-launch-timeline-with-prisma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/vega-launch-timeline-with-prisma\/","title":{"rendered":"Vega launch timeline with PRISMA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Italian PRISMA Earth observation satellite is set to ride a Vega launcher into a 382-mile-high (615-kilometer) orbit Thursday night from French Guiana on a mission that will take less than one hour from liftoff until spacecraft separation.<\/p>\n

Liftoff is scheduled for March 21 at 9:50:35 p.m. EDT (0150:35 GMT on March 22) from the Vega launch pad at the Guiana Space Center, located on the northeastern coast of South America. The Vega launcher, primarily developed and built in Italy, will head north over the Atlantic Ocean to deliver the PRISMA imaging satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit flying from pole-to-pole.<\/p>\n

It will be the 14th flight of a Vega rocket, and the first Vega mission of 2019.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Credit: Arianespace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:00:00 \u2013 Liftoff<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The Vega rocket\u2019s first stage P80 solid rocket motor ignites and powers the 98-foot-tall booster off the launch pad 0.3 seconds later. The P80 first stage motor generates a maximum of 683,000 pounds of thrust.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:00:31 \u2013 Mach 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The Vega rocket surpasses the speed of sound as it soars on a northerly trajectory from French Guiana. The rocket will reach Max-Q, the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure, at T+plus 53 seconds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:01:54 \u2013 First stage separation<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Having
Having consumed its 194,000 pounds (88 metric tons) of solid propellant, the 9.8-foot-diameter (3-meter) P80 first stage motor is jettisoned at an altitude of about 33 miles (53 kilometers). The second stage Zefiro 23 motor will ignite a second later to begin its 103-second firing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:03:38 \u2013 Second stage separation<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The Zefiro 23 motor burns out and jettisons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:03:51 \u2013 Third stage ignition<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Moving
Moving at a velocity of nearly 9,000 mph, or about 3.9 kilometers per second, the Vega rocket\u2019s Zefiro 9 motor ignites for the third stage burn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:03:56 \u2013 Fairing separation<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Vega\u2019s 8.5-foot-diameter (2.6-meter) payload fairing is released as the rocket ascends into space.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:06:26 \u2013 Third stage separation<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Zefiro 9 third stage shuts down and separates, having accelerated the rocket to nearly orbital velocity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:08:06 \u2013 First AVUM ignition<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Vega rocket\u2019s Attitude and Vernier Module, or fourth stage, ignites for the first time. The AVUM burns hydrazine fuel with an RD-843 engine provided by Yuzhnoye of Ukraine.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:12:44 \u2013 AVUM first cutoff<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Vega\u2019s AVUM fourth stage is turned off after an 4-minute, 38-second burn, beginning a nearly 39-minute coast until the engine is ignited again.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:51:20 \u2013 Second AVUM ignition<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The AVUM fires a second time for a 72-second burn to put the PRISMA satellite into its targeted orbit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:52:32 \u2013 AVUM second cutoff<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The AVUM engine shuts down after reaching a circular orbit with an altitude of 382 miles (615 kilometers), and an inclination of 97.88 degrees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:54:08 \u2013 PRISMA separation<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Italian space agency\u2019s PRISMA Earth observation satellite separates from the Vega\u2019s AVUM upper stage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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

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

The Italian PRISMA Earth observation satellite is set to ride a Vega launcher into a 382-mile-high (615-kilometer) orbit Thursday night from French Guiana on a mission that will take less than one hour from liftoff until spacecraft separation. Liftoff is scheduled for March 21 at 9:50:35 p.m. EDT (0150:35 GMT on March 22) from the […]<\/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":[498,1847,1244,159,1773,2188,25,2206],"class_list":["post-13280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-arianespace","tag-asi","tag-avio","tag-earth-observation","tag-guiana-space-center","tag-italy","tag-launch","tag-launch-timeline"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13280"}],"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=13280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}