Vega Family rocket variant.
Performance data not available.
Avio will keep a team of launch personnel in French Guiana from May through August to try to complete three Vega launches 2020.
Arianespace postponed a Vega launch carrying 53 smallsats until at least 2020-08-17 due to exceptionally unfavorable upper-level winds that scrubbed previous launch attempts in June.
ClearSpace plans to launch its debris removal spacecraft in 2025 to deorbit a leftover Vega rocket structure.
Avio plans three Vega launches in 2021 and a mid-2021 debut of Vega C.
Arianespace launched a Vega rocket on 2020-09-02, ending a 14-month hiatus for the vehicle.
The two Kepler satellites are the company’s first GEN1 satellites following three prototype satellites, two launched in 2018 and a third launched 2020-09-02 on a Vega dedicated rideshare mission.
Avio had planned to conduct three Vega launches in 2020 and still aimed to debut Vega C before 2021.
The European Space Agency completed a joint investigation with Arianespace on 2020-12-18 into the 2020-11-16 failure of Vega mission VV17.
Avio is the prime contractor for the Vega launch vehicle and implemented recommendations from an investigation of the 2020-11-16 Vega launch failure.
Arianespace planned three Vega launches in 2021, including the first launch of the upgraded Vega C.
ClearSpace plans to launch a spacecraft in 2025 to remove a Vega rocket upper stage that was left in orbit in 2013 with funding from ADRIOS.
Arianespace performed the first SSMS launch using a Vega vehicle in September 2020, deploying more than 40 cubesats and seven smallsats into sun-synchronous orbit.
An Arianespace Vega flight on 2021-11-16 delivered the CERES 1, CERES 2, and CERES 3 satellites into orbit for CNES on behalf of the French Ministry for the Armed Forces (DGA).
Arianespace has orbited over 1,000 satellites since 1980 using the Ariane, Soyuz, and Vega launchers from French Guiana, Baikonur, and Vostochny.
ClearSpace plans to use a spacecraft with four articulated arms to de-orbit part of a Vega rocket in 2025 under a contract with the European Space Agency.
Under a €110 million contract from the European Space Agency awarded in 2020, ClearSpace aims to use its servicer’s robotic arms to capture a spent upper stage from a 2013 Vega launch.
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-1 requires a co-passenger compatible with a trip toward a spent upper stage left in an 800-kilometer by 660-kilometer gradual disposal orbit following a 2013 Vega launch.
The European Space Agency is participating in an investigation led by Arianespace and Avio into the failed cubesat deployment on the 2023-10-08 Vega flight.
Avio will take over responsibilities for launch operations and sales of the Vega rocket from Arianespace in a process slated to be completed by mid-2024.