Asociación Española de Comunicación Científica

In French Guiana, site of most launches by the European Space Agency and commercial launch companies based mainly on the continent, a new rocket called Vega is nearing its first launch. Wasting no time on a shakedown test, it has a payload of nine scientific satellites for injection into low Earth orbit. Italy paid most of the development cost, Reuters‘s Alexander Miles reports, with the price tag thus far pegged at around a billion Euros.

The Vega is a medium-lift vehicle, smaller and presumably less costly than the venerable Ariane famiily of rockets that have been flying since the early 1980s. It is about 30 meters, or roughly 100 feet high, and can carry as much as 2500 kg or around 5500 pounds of cargo to orbit. It has solid fuel lower stages and liquid upper stage. The Reuters story reviews the reliability record of Ariane launches, declares that Vega is intended to be just as good, and reports “Potential competitors.. notably from the United States, have had [...]

Noticia original: Knight Science Journalism Tracker