It was the last takeoff of the year for space Europe. At 10:36 p.m. Sunday, after its successful takeoff from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, the Vega light rocket placed its 12 payloads into orbit. Vega notably embarked Theos-2, a high-resolution optical observation satellite from the Thai Geoinformatics and Space Technology Development Agency, and Formosat-7R/Triton, a scientific satellite from the Taiwan Space Agency (Tasa ) equipped with a system for collecting signals bouncing off the sea surface to prevent typhoons.
These two main passengers left the rocket fairing 54 minutes after the launcher took off to enter a sun-synchronous orbit. Then, 1h43 after takeoff, the ten other devices on board were placed in low orbit. These are “cubesats”: very innovative small satellites,” underlined the boss of Arianespace, Stéphane Israel.
Complicated year
This third and final firing from the Kourou space base in 2023 concludes a complicated year for space Europe which combines the end of Ariane 5’s career in July, delays in the commissioning of Ariane 6 and the suspension of the Vega-C program since the failure of its first commercial flight in December 2022. The rocket developed by the Italian industrialist Avio – more powerful than Vega – is grounded and will not fly again before the fourth quarter of 2024, announced the 2 October the European Space Agency (ESA).
Between now and the entry into service of Ariane 6 scheduled for 2024, the Europeans only have to fire a Vega rocket, a version prior to Vega-C not affected by the problems of the second stage of the light launcher. The launch will take place in the second quarter of 2024. For comparison, over the first six months of the year, Arianespace launched a single Ariane 5 rocket on behalf of the ESA, while the American SpaceX carried out 43 launches of its Falcon 9 – or almost two per week – and the China Aerospace Science and Technology Society (CASC) 18.