[02-14-12] Arianespace<\/b> has successfully launched the European Space Agency\u2019s (ESA)<\/b> first Vega rocket, which placed two scientific research satellites and seven picosatellites into orbit, ESA and Arianespace confirmed Feb. 13.<\/p>\n
The Vega light-lift rocket was launched from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Among its payloads, the rocket placed Hungary\u2019s first satellite, MaSat-1 into orbit. Vega was designed to launch payloads of up to 1,500 kg at an altitude of 700 km and joins Arianespace\u2019s Ariane 5 and Soyuz rockets as part of its service portfolio.
\n Arianespace will be in charge of the commercialization and exploitation of Vega. With its addition, the company is now able to launch any size payload into any orbit, including telecommunications satellites, scientific or Earth observation satellites, constellations and missions to the International Space Station. The new booster is designed to serve as a launcher for small payloads to complement Europe\u2019s heavy-lift Ariane 5 rockets and the medium-class Russian Soyuz rockets that lift off from the Guiana Space Center.
\n Following the launch, Arianespace CEO and Chairman Jean-Yves Le Gall congratulated partners ESA, the Italian Space Agency, the Centre National d\u2019Etudes Spatiales and a conglomerate of industrial partnerships.
\n \u201cThis success comes after nine years of cooperative development. Well done Europe,\u201d Le Gall said in a statement. \u201cEven before this first launch, Arianespace and ESA already signed the first commercial launch service and solutions contract for the European Union launch of Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 spacecraft on Vega.\u201d
\n ESA spent 700 million euros ($930 million) and nearly nine years developing the four-stage Vega rocket and plans to spend another 300 million euros ($399 million) on the booster\u2019s first five flights.
\n \u201cToday is a moment of pride for Europe as well as those around 1,000 individuals who have been involved in developing the world\u2019s most modern and competitive launcher system for small satellites,\u201d ESA Launch Vehicle Director Antonio Fabrizi in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[02-14-12] Arianespace has successfully launched the European Space Agency\u2019s (ESA) first Vega rocket, which placed two scientific research satellites and seven picosatellites into orbit, ESA and Arianespace confirmed Feb. 13. The Vega light-lift rocket was launched from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Among its payloads, the rocket placed Hungary\u2019s first satellite, MaSat-1 […]<\/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-83546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83546"}],"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=83546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}