Vega Family rocket variant.
Performance data not available.
The European Space Agency relies on Vega, the light-lift rocket produced mainly in Italy and operated by the European launch consortium Arianespace, for future launches formerly served by Rockot.
ISIS – Innovative Solutions In Space – has joined the group of customers that signed contracts to launch payloads on Vega’s Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) Proof Of Concept flight in early 2019.
Morocco launched its Mohammed-6A Earth observation satellite on 2018-11-07 to low Earth orbit on an Arianespace Vega rocket from French Guiana.
A contract signed during the AIAA/Utah State University Conference on Small Satellites on 2018-08-07 covers the launch of 10 Astrocast cubesats as secondary payloads on a Vega rocket in late 2019 or early 2020.
The satellite is planned for launch on a Vega rocket in 2019-07-01 using ISIS’ launch services.
Arianespace operates Soyuz vehicles from the Guiana Space Centre alongside European Ariane 5 and Vega rockets.
Arianespace will serve the small-satellite and LEO constellation market with its Vega small satellite launch vehicle and Ariane 6.
Arianespace’s last Vega launch of 2019 will use the first of 10 Vega rockets ordered in 2017.
The 10 Vega rockets ordered in 2017, a mix of Vega and Vega C, are expected to last Arianespace until 2021 or the beginning of 2022.
Avio has four Vega launches planned in 2019: the Italian Space Agency’s PRISMA satellite, the ESA-supported SSMS adaptor proof-of-concept flight, and the launches of the United Arab Emirates’ Falcon Eye 1 and Falcon Eye 2 satellites.
Arianespace had planned four Vega launches for the year, with the first Vega launch occurring on 2019-03-21 carrying the Italian Space Agency’s PRISMA satellite.
The Ariane 5 mission carrying Intelsat-39 and EDRS-C was planned for 2025-07-24, and will be Arianespace’s seventh mission of the year counting the failed Vega mission.
Arianespace’s board of inquiry was convened to investigate the 2019-07-10 Vega failure and had not completed its work as of 2019-08-05.
The PRISMA hyperspectral imaging satellite was built by OHB Italia with an imaging payload from Leonardo and launched on an Italian Vega rocket in March.
GHGSat plans to launch a second satellite later 2019 on an Arianespace Vega rocket.
Astrocast scheduled another 10 satellites to launch at the end of 2020 on an Arianespace Vega rocket.
Arianespace plans to return Vega to flight between January and the end of March, a schedule that pushes the planned 2019 launches of the UAE’s Falcon Eye-2 satellite and a dedicated rideshare mission carrying 42 tiny satellites into 2020.
Avio is preparing a transition phase from 2020 to 2023 to build Vega and the more powerful Vega C simultaneously.
Airbus selected Vega to launch the European Space Agency’s Biomass satellite in 2022 and also procured the July launch of the UAE’s Falcon Eye 1.
ClearSpace-1 is slated to launch in 2025 to capture and deorbit a 100-kilogram Vespa payload adapter left in orbit by an Arianespace Vega after deploying ESA’s Proba-V satellite.