Europe's Vega C rocket launched for the sixth time ever today (Dec. 1), sending a powerful Earth-observation satellite to orbit.
South Korea's KOMPSAT-7 spacecraft lifted off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana atop a Vega C rocket today at 12:21 p.m. EST (1721 GMT; 2:21 p.m. Kourou time).
The rocket deployed KOMPSAT-7 on schedule about 44 minutes after liftoff, into a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) 358 miles (576 kilometers) above Earth.
Spacecraft in SSOs circle Earth's poles and pass over the same patch of the planet at the same solar time each day. This ensures consistent lighting conditions at each of those spots, making SSOs popular destinations for Earth-observing missions.
The 3,990-pound (1,810-kilogram) KOMPSAT-7 was built by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. It's the successor to KOMPSAT-3A, which launched to Earth orbit in March 2015.
The new satellite will be "one of the world’s most advanced ultra-high-resolution optical satellites," according to the press kit provided by the France-based company Arianespace, which operates the Vega C.
"It is designed to support detailed observation of the Korean Peninsula and to meet the growing national demand for high-quality satellite imagery," adds the press kit, which you can find here.
KOMPSAT-7 also features "optical data transmission technology — a first for a Korean satellite — to enable real-time processing of large-volume Earth-observation imagery via electro-optical modules and onboard storage/processing systems," Arianespace wrote.
Today's mission, which Arianespace called VV28, was the sixth for the four-stage, 115-foot-tall (35-meter-tall) Vega C, which was developed by the European Space Agency.
Five of the medium-lift rocket's six launches have been successful. The lone failure occurred on the Vega C's second mission, which lifted off in December 2022.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 12:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 1 with news of successful liftoff, then again at 1:10 p.m. ET with news of satellite deployment.
