Latest Mission updates

Vega August 31, 2020

Vega receives the “green light” for Arianespace’s historic first small-sat rideshare mission

The lightweight Vega launcher is a “go” for its September 1 flight from French Guiana to demonstrate Arianespace’s competitive and flexible rideshare response to the flourishing small satellite market.

This upcoming Proof of Concept mission – which carries a total of 53 small satellites on a new dispenser system – was authorized for Tuesday’s nighttime departure following the Launch Readiness Review today, which confirmed the preparedness of Vega, along with the payloads, the Spaceport’s launch site infrastructure, and the network of tracking stations.

Designated Flight VV16 in Arianespace’s launcher family numbering system, it will validate the Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) – using a modular dispenser whose components can be assembled as needed in a building-block style. For tomorrow’s flight, seven microsatellites are installed on the dispenser’s upper portion, while 46 smaller CubeSats have been positioned on the lower portion’s hexagon-shaped module.

During Vega’s flight sequence, the seven microsatellites are to be deployed in Sun-synchronous orbit from 40 minutes into the mission through 52 minutes; followed by the CubeSats’ phased release from 1 hour, 42 minutes to just under 1 hour, 45 minutes.

Supporting nano- and micro-satellite operators

SSMS provides Arianespace with flight opportunities for nano- and micro-satellites, offering solutions perfectly suited to this growing sub-segment of the launch marketplace. The service enables multiple small satellites from 1 kg. to 500 kg. to be flown together on Vega with the objective of sharing the launch cost.

By choosing Arianespace and SSMS, small satellite operators receive the same level of quality and reliability as the largest customers – while new operators such as laboratories, universities and start-ups are guaranteed optimum conditions for the launch of their space projects.

As a true European effort, the SSMS dispenser system is a European Space Agency (ESA) product developed by Italy’s Avio under ESA leadership, and was produced by the Czech company SAB Aerospace s.r.o. (CZ). The European Union contributed to the financing of tomorrow’s Proof of Concept flight.


Liftoff timing for Flight VV16:

 French Guiana Washington, D.C. UTC Paris and Rome
10:51:10 p.m.
on Sept. 1
9:51:10 p.m.
on Sept. 1
01:51:10
on Sept. 2
03:51:10 a.m.
on Sept. 2

 

More details are available in the VV16 launch kit:

Vega Flight VV16
PDF / 818 KB

The European Space Agency website: www.esa.int

The European Commission website: https://ec.europa.eu/info/index_en

Avio website: https://www.avio.com/

Vega August 27, 2020

Vega’s SSMS rideshare mission is rescheduled for a launch window opening on September 1

Read more