Vega C triumphed: Europe starts again into space!

Vega C triumphed: Europe starts again into space!

Relief in European space travel! After a dramatic false start almost two years ago, the Vega-C winning rocket successfully withdrawn from the European Space Railway station in Kourou, French Guayana. The head of the European space authority ESA, Josef Aschbacher, spoke of a "triumphant return to old performance". This rocket is crucial for Europe in order to bring again independently lighter satellites and scientific experiments into space. The first commercial flight of Vega C failed in December 2022, which fell into a crisis.

On Thursday evening at 10:20 p.m. German time, the Vega-C rocket lifted and after about an hour and 50 minutes the last step of the start was taken. Arianespace praised the "perfectly executed European mission" on X. Giulio Ranzo, the head of the main contractor Avio, emphasized: "Tonight we restored the performance of Vega C." This new rocket can bring to space over two tons of payload and is also cheaper, which makes it indispensable for many missions of the ESA.

to regain competitiveness

Vega C is an improved version of the original Vega rocket that has been in use since 2012. With an additional capacity of 800 kilograms, Vega C will make European space more competitive. Aschbacher emphasized that Vega C covers exactly the need that ESA needs for numerous missions. After the successful start, it is now important to get the capacities up to be able to carry out four to six flights per year.

The false start of the Vega C was a hard blow for European space travel. The first flight in July 2022 was successful, but the first commercial attempt ended in a disaster when the rocket was destroyed due to a technical problem. The ESA then had to switch to Falcon-9 rockets from SpaceX, which increased the crisis in the European sponsoring missile sector. After almost two years of intensive tests and analyzes, the crisis is now "absolutely overcome", says Aschbacher.