Europe’s Vega-C rocket has successfully returned to space after failing on its first commercial mission two years ago.
Europe’s new Vega-C rocket was successfully launched from French Guiana on Thursday. It was the first launch of the troubled rocket since a failed flight two years ago.
After days of delays, the rocket carrying the Sentinel-1C satellite for the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation programme blasted off into space.
“Piloting is calm and the parameters on board are normal,” said Jean-Frederic Alasa, Range Operations Manager, in the Guiana Space Center’s control room a few minutes into the mission.
Sentinel-1C is expected to expand the use of radar imagery to monitor the Earth’s environment. With 12 families of Sentinel satellites, Copernicus is the world’s largest Earth observation system, according to its developers, and holds the largest repository of radar data.
What is Vega-C?
The Vega-C is an evolution of the Vega rocket, which carried lightweight satellites into space from 2012 until this autumn.
According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the new rocket can carry about 800 kilograms more payload, is cheaper and can put satellites into orbits at different altitudes. In total, the Vega C can transport more than two tonnes of payload.
In December 2022, Vega rockets were grounded after the latest model failed two and a half minutes into its second mission and first commercial flight due to a motor anomaly, destroying two Earth-imaging satellites.
The rocket was grounded for two years while the nozzle of the Zefiro 40 rocket motor that caused the failure was redesigned.
Europe’s prospects in space
The new rocket is expected to play a key role in Europe’s access to space after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine forced the bloc to stop using Russian Soyuz vehicles.
Previously, Europe relied on earlier versions of Vega for light payloads, Soyuz for medium payloads, and Ariane for heavy payloads.
Four-year delays to Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket have exacerbated the problem, forcing the continent to turn to rivals such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
However, the heavy-lift Ariane 6 made a successful maiden flight in July, providing some relief to Europe’s space efforts. Four launches with Vega-C are planned for next year, followed by five more in 2026, according to ESA.
