Vega C Family rocket variant.
Performance data not available.
Arianespace launched the first Vega C rocket from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana on Wednesday, 2022-07-13 at 10:13 a.m. local time.
THEOS-2 is manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space for the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency of Thailand and is a Vega C customer payload.
Pléiades Neo 5 and Pléiades Neo 6 are scheduled to launch at the end of November on the first commercial mission of the Vega C rocket operated by Arianespace.
Airbus had planned to add Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 to its constellation of high-resolution imaging satellites on the 2022-12-20 Vega C launch.
The European Union awarded Arianespace a contract on 2022-11-29 for five Vega C launches of Sentinel satellites.
Arianespace and the European Space Agency established an independent commission to investigate the 2022-12-20 Vega C failure.
The Vega C rocket failed to reach orbit on 2022-12-20, destroying two Pléiades Neo imaging satellites for Airbus Defence and Space.
Avio selected Yuzhnoye during the Vega C design phase in 2015 to 2017 after concluding other European suppliers could not provide the material in required quantities on a compatible schedule.
The 2023-03-14 contract is the first contract for the Vega C announced since completion of the investigation into the 2022-12-01 Vega launch failure that destroyed two Airbus imaging satellites.
ClearSpace signed a contract with Arianespace on 2023-05-09 to launch its ClearSpace-1 debris de-orbit mission on Europe’s Vega C rocket in the second half of 2026.
ESA will provide up to 340 million euros annually for Ariane 6 and 21 million euros annually for Vega C.
In 2022, ESA announced that Sentinel-1C would launch on Vega C in 2023.
Airbus lost two Pleiades Neo satellites in a 2022 ArianeSpace Vega C launch failure.
ESA signed a launch contract on 2024-04-30 with Arianespace for Vega C to launch the SMILE mission into a highly elliptical orbit in late 2025.
In November 2023 ESA agreed to provide 340,000,000 EUR per year of financial support for Ariane 6 and Vega C as part of a stabilized exploitation agreement.
The VV25 mission is scheduled to launch on Tuesday, 2024-12-03 at 6:20 p.m. local time (9:20 p.m. UTC, 10:20 p.m. CEST) from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana with a Vega C launcher.
Arianespace announced on 2024-11-27 that the upcoming Vega C launch of the Sentinel-1C spacecraft would be delayed from 2024-12-03 to allow further precautionary checks and activities on the rocket.
Arianespace estimated the Vega C launch delay would be about one day and committed to provide an updated launch date by 2024-11-29.
Avio is planning four launches of the Vega C in 2025 using current infrastructure.