ESA / ARIANESPACE - Flight VV03 poster.
April 29, 2014
Vega Flight VV03
The latest Vega launch delivers Kazakhstan’s first Earth observation satellite to orbit
Vega flight VV03 liftoff! (Screenshot by Juli Fowler)
Arianespace is on track for a record launch performance in 2014 following tonight’s Vega mission from the Spaceport in French Guiana, which successfully orbited a pioneering Earth observation satellite for the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Lifting off from the SLV launch site at 10:35:15 p.m. local time – which was the planned precise moment of launch – Vega was put through its paces to loft DZZ-HR, renamed “KasEOSat-1” after reaching Sun-synchronous orbit, during a flight lasting 55 minutes.
Arianespace Flight VV03 - KasEOSat-1
As a 900-kg.-class Earth observation spacecraft, KasEOSat-1 is to provide the Republic of Kazakhstan with a complete range of civil applications – including monitoring of natural and agricultural resources, provision of mapping data, and support for rescue operations in the event of a natural disaster.
Tonight’s mission – designated Flight VV03 – marked the third launch of a Vega, which joins Arianespace’s medium-lift Soyuz and heavyweight Ariane 5 to form the world’s most capable family of launchers, operating side-by-side at the Spaceport.
Conceived for the orbiting of small- to medium-sized satellites, including institutional and scientific spacecraft, Vega was developed in the framework of a European Space Agency (ESA) program financed by Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden. The launcher design authority and prime contractor is Italy’s ELV – a joint venture company of Avio and the Italian ASI space agency – while Arianespace is responsible for handling the launch operations.
KasEOSat-1 satellite (Credit: Günter Space Page)
The first Vega launch (designated Flight VV01 in Arianespace’s numbering system) was a qualification mission performed in February 2012, carrying the LARES laser relativity satellite, a small ALMASat-1 technology microsatellite demonstrator, and seven CubeSats. It was followed by Flight VV02 in May 2013, which orbited the Proba-V, VNREDSat-1 and ESTCube-1 satellites.
Tonight’s Vega success was Arianespace’s fourth mission so far in 2014, putting the company on track to perform a total of 12 launches from Europe’s Spaceport during the year – which would mark a new record, surpassing the 10-launch mark set in 2012. It follows the Ariane 5 flight that orbited ABS-2 and Athena-Fidus in February; Ariane 5’s March success with ASTRA 5B and Amazonas 4A; and the Soyuz mission to loft Sentinel-1A earlier this month.
Related links:
Arianespace website: http://www.arianespace.com/index/index.asp
Airbus Defence and Space website: http://airbusdefenceandspace.com/
European Space Agency website: http://www.esa.int/ESA
Italian Space Agency: http://www.asi.it/en
ELV, SpA website: http://www.elv.it/en
Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: Arianespace / Arianespace TV / Launch screen capture by Juli Fowler.
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