Europe’s Vega C rocket is scheduled to launch on its second-ever mission on Tuesday evening (Dec. 20), and you may watch the motion dwell.
The medium-lift Vega C is scheduled to raise off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on Tuesday at 9:47 p.m. EST (10:47 p.m. native time; 0247 GMT on Dec. 21). You possibly can watch the launch dwell right here at House.com, courtesy of Arianespace, which operates the Vega C, or directly via the France-based company (opens in new tab).
The 115-foot-tall (35 meters) Vega C rocket will carry to sun-synchronous orbit the satellites Pléiades Neo 5 and Pléiades Neo 6, which collectively weigh 4,359 kilos (1,977 kilograms).
Associated: The history of rockets
The 2 spacecraft will full the Pléiades Neo Earth-imaging constellation, which is owned and operated by European aerospace big Airbus.
“The constellation is made of 4 an identical satellites, constructed utilizing the newest Airbus improvements and technological developments, and permits to picture any level of the globe, a number of occasions per day, at 30-centimeter [12 inches] decision,” Arianespace wrote in a description of the coming Vega C mission (opens in new tab).
“Extremely agile and reactive, they are often tasked as much as quarter-hour earlier than acquisition and ship the pictures again to Earth inside the following hour,” Arianespace added. “Smaller, lighter, extra agile, correct and reactive than the competitors, they’re the primary of their class whose capability will likely be totally commercially out there.”
Tuesday’s launch was initially scheduled for Nov. 24 however was delayed practically a month to switch defective tools on the Vega C. This work required taking the rocket again to a processing facility at Kourou and opening its payload fairing, Arianespace representatives said via Twitter last month (opens in new tab).
Vega C was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and is now operated by Arianespace. The brand new rocket is a extra highly effective variant of the unique Vega, which made its debut in 2012.
Vega C’s inaugural flight occurred this past July, when the rocket efficiently launched a 650-pound (295 kg) Italian spacecraft and 6 tiny tagalong cubesats to orbit.
Arianespace at present has three operational rockets in its steady: the 2 Vegas and Ariane 5, a strong heavy lifter. The corporate flew Russian-built Soyuz rockets for years as effectively however stopped doing so after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Arianespace can even fly the Ariane 6, the successor to the Ariane 5. ESA continues to be creating the brand new heavy lifter, which is predicted to launch for the primary time in late 2023.
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a ebook in regards to the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
