Milestone mission, historic payload

Arianespace performs its 50th mission for the European Space Agency, successfully launching the first-ever satellite designed to measure wind profiles on a global scale: Aeolus. It is one of ESA’s Earth Explorer missions, which address key scientific challenges identified by the science community and demonstrate breakthrough technology in observing techniques.

Vega: 10 launches, 10 successes

Vega’s perfect launch record continues with its dual-passenger flight that orbited observation satellites for the Italian Ministry of Defence and Israel Space Agency – marking 10 successes in as many tries since the light-lift vehicle started operation in 2012.

Vega’s seventh launch

Continuing its uninterrupted track record of successful launches, Vega orbits five Earth observation satellites on its seventh mission: four SkySats spacecraft for Terra Bella, a Google company; along with PerúSAT-1, within the scope of a contract with Airbus Defence and Space for the Peruvian space agency CONIDA.

Launch success

Vega deploys the European Space Agency’s Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) on a suborbital mission to validate reentry technologies. This is the fourth flight of the lightweight launcher, continuing its successful operation from French Guiana.

The third Vega launch from French Guiana successfully orbits KazEOSat-1, a pioneering Earth observation satellite for the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Arianespace orders 10 Vega launchers from Italian manufacturer ELV for missions beginning at the end of 2015, and covering more than three years of operations. They follow the initial original Vega launcher used for the qualification flight in February 2012, and the five Vegas already ordered in 2010 within the scope of the VERTA contract.

Vega in commercial service

Vega’s second flight from French Guiana orbits a trio of satellites – Proba-V, VNREDSat-1 and ESTCube-1 – on a mission that also marks start of operations under Arianespace responsibility for this light-lift launcher.

DZZ-HR for Vega launch

A Vega launch contract is signed by Arianespace with Astrium for the DZZ-HR high-resolution observation satellite, which will be operated by Kazakhstan. Scheduled for orbiting in the second quarter of 2014, the DZZ-HR agreement marks Arianespace’s third contract for Vega, and the first to serve an end-customer outside of Europe.

Vega commercial contract

The first commercial contract signing for Vega is announced by Arianespace, involving two satellites in the Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 families dedicated to Europe's GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) program. The launches with these payloads are scheduled for 2014-2016 from the Spaceport in French Guiana.

Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega together

Arianespace’s launcher family is a reality as operational versions of the Ariane 5, Vega and Soyuz are present for the first time in French Guiana, positioned for upcoming missions. A heavy-lift Ariane 5 for the VA205 mission with Europe’s third Automated Transfer Vehicle arrives from Europe aboard the MN Colibri sea-going ship, along with the no. 1 Vega for this lightweight launcher’s VV01 qualification flight in January 2012. They join a Soyuz that is being prepared for Arianespace’s second launch of the medium-lift vehicle from the Spaceport, which is scheduled for December 16, 2011.

A full-scale Vega model is assembled on the Spaceport’s SLV launch pad as part of validations for the mechanical, electrical and fluid elements of this newest member in Arianespace’s launcher family. The representative Vega was composed of inert first, second and third solid propellant stages, along with the AVUM bi-propellant liquid upper stage, the payload fairing with a satellite mockup and payload adapter.

A representative P80 first stage is moved to the Spaceport’s launch pad as the initial step for combined testing of Vega with its ground-based infrastructure. This full-scale stage is complete with instrumentation, and has been filled with a simulated load of solid propellant.