Vega C returns to flight with Sentinel-1C launch
Posted: Sat, Dec 7, 2024, 10:12 AM ET (1512 GMT)
Europe's Vega C rocket successfully returned to flight Thursday, nearly two years after a launch failure. The Vega C lifted off from French Guiana at 4:20 p.m. Eastern and deployed the Sentinel-1C Earth observation satellite about an hour and 45 minutes later. The launch was the first for the Vega C since a December 2022 failure blamed on the nozzle of the second-stage solid-fuel motor. That motor was redesigned and tested on the ground twice before this launch. The launch helps bring to an end the "launcher crisis" in Europe that had forced ESA and the European Commission to go overseas to launch science and navigation satellites. Sentinel-1C, a radar mapping satellite that is part of the Copernicus program, replaces the Sentinel-1B satellite that failed nearly three years ago.
Europe's Vega C rocket successfully returned to flight Thursday, nearly two years after a launch failure. The Vega C lifted off from French Guiana at 4:20 p.m. Eastern and deployed the Sentinel-1C Earth observation satellite about an hour and 45 minutes later. The launch was the first for the Vega C since a December 2022 failure blamed on the nozzle of the second-stage solid-fuel motor. That motor was redesigned and tested on the ground twice before this launch. The launch helps bring to an end the "launcher crisis" in Europe that had forced ESA and the European Commission to go overseas to launch science and navigation satellites. Sentinel-1C, a radar mapping satellite that is part of the Copernicus program, replaces the Sentinel-1B satellite that failed nearly three years ago.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Friday, June 12
The most audacious IPO in history
Washington Post — 5:17 am ET (0917 GMT) SpaceX rocket launch this morning from Cape Canaveral: Everything to know
Florida Today — 5:16 am ET (0916 GMT) A look at the SpaceX IPO by the numbers
AP — 5:14 am ET (0914 GMT) Thursday, June 11
Boosting European leadership in in-space operations and services
ESA — 6:40 am ET (1040 GMT) Estonian municipalities test Starlink to bolster crisis readiness
ERR — 6:39 am ET (1039 GMT) |
