New Vega Rocket Ready for Second Launch Tomorrow

The second mission of the new Vega launcher has entered its final preparation phase one day before liftoff. The lightweight launcher was newly developed to launch small payloads, a segment that is becoming much bigger and more interesting in the coming years since miniaturization, like smartphone technology, makes it possible to construct powerful satellites that are much smaller and cheaper than before. The European rocket is readied to take off in the night of May 3 with a trio of satellites as its payload.

This mission's launch on Friday is set for a precise moment: 11:06:31 p.m., local time at the Spaceport, for a flight lasting 2 hours, 48 seconds from liftoff to separation of the final spacecraft in its payload "stack."

The flight profile calls for Proba-V - the upper payload - to be released from its position atop Vega's VESPA (Vega Secondary Payload Adapter) dispenser system at 55 minutes and 27 seconds after liftoff. It will be followed by VNREDSat-1 and ESTCube-1, both of which are riding inside the VESPA dispenser.

During the mission, the initial powered phase will be performed by the Vega's three solid propellant stages, lasting 6 minutes and 19 seconds. The AVUM upper stage will be ignited for four separate burns for the payload deployment sequence, followed by a final burn that deorbits the upper stage to ensure that it does not remain as a debris threat.

Vega is tailored for launching 1,500-kg.-class payloads to a reference altitude of 700 km, providing Arianespace with a light-lift vehicle capable of accommodating scientific and governmental satellites, as well as commercial payloads.

ESTCube-1 is Estonia's first satellite, designed and built by a team of students at the country's National University of Tartu, under supervision of the Estonian Space Office. The 1.33-kg. cubesat will be the first ever orbital test of the electric solar wind sail technology, and extend a small conductive tether for testing this. The project involved a collaboration of students from the Estonian Aviation Academy, Tallinn University of Technology and the University of Life Sciences - and was developed in conjunction with the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the German Space Center (DLR).

The VNREDSat-1 optical satellite is part of Vietnam's initiative to create an infrastructure enabling better studies of climate change effects, improving predictions for natural disasters and optimizing the country's natural resource management. This 120-kg. spacecraft was built by Astrium on behalf of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST).