{"id":15225,"date":"2016-09-15T20:45:01","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T12:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/timeline-for-the-vega-rockets-seventh-launch\/"},"modified":"2016-09-15T20:45:01","modified_gmt":"2016-09-15T12:45:01","slug":"timeline-for-the-vega-rockets-seventh-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/timeline-for-the-vega-rockets-seventh-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Timeline for the Vega rocket\u2019s seventh launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two orbits. Five satellites. Four upper stage burns. Follow the key events scheduled during the European Vega rocket\u2019s launch from French Guiana with the PeruSat 1 high-resolution reconnaissance satellite and four commercial eyes-in-the-sky owned by Google\u2019s Terra Bella imaging company.<\/p>\n

\"Credit:
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 an easterly 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+00:03:59 \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+00:04:04 \u2013 Fairing separation<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

T+00:06:41 \u2013 Third stage separation<\/strong><\/p>\n

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

T+00:08:07 \u2013 First AVUM ignition<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
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+00:14:10 \u2013 AVUM first cutoff<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The Vega\u2019s AVUM fourth stage is turned off after an 6-minute, 3-second burn, beginning a 24-minute coast until the engine is ignited again.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:38:05 \u2013 Second AVUM ignition<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The AVUM fires a second time for a 89-second burn to put the four SkySat satellites into their targeted orbit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:39:34 \u2013 AVUM second cutoff<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The AVUM engine shuts down after reaching a near circular orbit with a high point of 315 miles (508 kilometers), a low point of 305 miles (491 kilometers), and an inclination of 97.4 degrees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:40:21 \u2013 SkySat 4-7 separation<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The four SkySat Earth observation satellites mounted in the upper position on the Vega rocket\u2019s Vespa dual-payload adapter separate one by one starting at T+plus 40 minutes, 21 seconds, and ending seven seconds later.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:54:44 \u2013 Third AVUM ignition<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
After jettisoning a cover to expose the PeruSat 1 satellite, the AVUM\u2019s RD-843 engine fires a third time for a 47-second burn to boost into a higher orbit for deployment of PeruSat 1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+00:55:31 \u2013 AVUM third cutoff<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The AVUM fourth stage shuts down to begin a 46-minute coast phase before its next burn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+01:41:20 \u2013 Fourth AVUM ignition<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The AVUM main engine ignites a fourth time for a 45-second burn.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+01:42:05 \u2013 AVUM fourth cutoff<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The RD-843 engine shuts down after reaching an orbit with a low point of 414 miles (667 kilometers), a high point of 425 miles (684 kilometers), and an inclination of 98.2 degrees.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

T+01:42:59 \u2013 PeruSat 1 separation<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The 948-pound (430-kilogram) PeruSat 1 satellite separates from the Vega rocket\u2019s fourth stage. The upper stage\u2019s RD-843 engine will ignite again a few minutes later to head for a disposal orbit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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

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

Two orbits. Five satellites. Four upper stage burns. Follow the key events scheduled during the European Vega rocket\u2019s launch from French Guiana with the PeruSat 1 high-resolution reconnaissance satellite and four commercial eyes-in-the-sky owned by Google\u2019s Terra Bella imaging company. Credit: Arianespace T+00:00:00 \u2013 Liftoff The Vega rocket\u2019s first stage P80 solid rocket motor ignites […]<\/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":[1657,498,1244,159,3055,1773,3595,3596],"class_list":["post-15225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-airbus-defense-and-space","tag-arianespace","tag-avio","tag-earth-observation","tag-google","tag-guiana-space-center","tag-peru","tag-perusat-1"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15225"}],"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=15225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15225\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}