Europe's Vega rocket complete successful maiden voyage

Feb 13, 2012, 21:17 GMT

Kourou - The European Space Agency launched its first new rocket in 16 years Monday in French Guiana, where the Vega rocket lifted off from Kourou spaceport on its successful maiden voyage.

The 30-metre-tall, 137-tonne Vega, which was designed in Italy to launch small science and Earth observation satellites, lifted off at 1000 GMT.

Over the following 81 minutes it put nine satellites into orbit - two Italian scientific satellites and seven pico satellites provided by European universities.

The biggest of the nine satellites, Italy's LARES laser-ranging satellite, aims to measure the Lense-Thirring or 'frame-dragging' effect.

The seven cubic pico satellites were developed by students across Europe as part of their research into solar technology, radiation and other fields.

Lares, which looks like a giant disco ball with its 92 retroreflectors, separated from Vega's upper stage 55 minutes into the flight. The other satellites followed suit 15 minutes later.

The Vega completes the European family of rockets, which includes the heavy-duty Ariane 5 and the mid-size Russian-built Soyuz, which was launched in Kourou last October.

It can carry payloads of between 30 and 2,500 kilograms into a wide range of orbits.

'There is not anymore one single European satellite which cannot be launched by a European launcher service,' ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain said in a statement.

'It's a great day for ESA, its member states, in particular Italy, where the Vega was born, for European industry and for Arianespace,' Dordain added.

Now that it has been successfully tested the ESA will hand over charge of the rocket's commercialization and exploitation to Arianespace, Europe's commercial satellite launcher.

Ariane aims to carry out at least two Vega launches a year.

The Vega was developed by seven European countries at a cost of nearly 790 million euros (1 billion dollars). Around 1,000 people worked on the project, which took nine years to complete.

The rocket's flawless flight contrasted with the ESA's last test launch of a new rocket on June 4, 1996.

The first Ariane 5 rocket exploded 40 seconds after lift-off from Kourou, owing to a software error.

The Ariane 5 programme later went on to become a success, with over 60 launches.