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
|
|
NASA to launch Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in September
Posted: Sat, Apr 25 10:54 AM ET (1454 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Thursday, April 30
United States Welcomes Morocco Signing of the Artemis Accords
US State Department — 6:58 am ET (1058 GMT) What would happen without satellite communications?
ESA — 6:56 am ET (1056 GMT) Baking a parachute for Mars
ESA — 6:55 am ET (1055 GMT) Space Command cuts ribbon on first Redstone facility
WAFF-TV — 6:54 am ET (1054 GMT) Space Command cuts ribbon on first AL facility, lays groundwork for 200 personnel by end of year
WHNT-TV — 6:53 am ET (1053 GMT) |
