2010

• January 28 – The support services for Vega’s first launch campaign are defined in a contract signed by Arianespace and the European Space Agency. Testing will be conducted at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana in preparation for Vega's first flight toward the end of 2010.

2009

• February 20 – The ELA-1 facility's Vega mobile gantry performs its initial rollout test at the Spaceport in French Guiana.

2008

• July 9 – Elements for Vega’s launch site infrastructure at the Spaceport are delivered to Kourou's Pariacabo port.  These components include full-scale models of the Zefiro 23 second stage, Zefiro 9 third stage, and the AVUM upper stage, along with diverse hardware, tooling and structures from the Italian industrial partners in Vega’s ELV consortium.
• March 27 – Zefiro 23, the second stage motor of the Vega launch vehicle, successfully passes its qualification test at the Salto di Quirra testing center in Sardinia. The process verifies the functional and mission features needed to begin production of the flight unit.

2006

• November 30 –The P80 solid propellant motor – which powers Vega’s first stage – undergoes its first static test firing at Europe’s Spaceport, delivering a mean thrust of approximately 190 tons for more than 100 seconds. A peak of 250 tons was reached 7 seconds into the test.
• June 26 – Vega’s second stage motor, the Zerifiro 23, undergoes its first static firing test at the Italian Ministry of Defence test centre in Salto di Quirra, Sardinia – delivering more than 100 metric tons of thrust and burning some 24 metric tons of solid propellant in 75 seconds.

2003

• February 25 – The European Space Agency signs a contract with the ELV company for completion of the Vega European small launcher program’s development phase at FiatAvio industrial park in Colleferro, Italy.

2000

• December 15 – The Vega Small Launcher Development program is formally approved by participating states Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland (with Spain’s decision pending).