Europe's Vega-C rocket returned to flight Thursday (Dec. 5) with a successful mission, two years after suffering a catastrophic failure.
Vega-C, which is operated by the French company Arianespace, launched the Copernicus Sentinel-1C Earth-observation satellite on Thursday, lifting off from Kourou, French Guiana at 4:20 p.m. EST (2120 GMT; 6:20 p.m. local time).
The mission was originally supposed to fly on Wednesday (Dec. 4), but a mechanical issue with the launch gantry nixed that attempt.
This was the third launch for the Vega-C, and its first since a failure in the vehicle's second stage led to the complete loss of its last payload in December 2022.
Related: Europe's Vega C rocket fails on 2nd-ever mission, 2 satellites lost
Thursday's mission lofted Sentinel-1C, part of the European Union's Copernicus Earth-observation program. The spacecraft is a replacement to complete a dual-satellite constellation with Sentinel-1A, following the unexpected failure of its partner satellite Sentinel-1B, which became inoperable after experiencing a technical fault in 2022.
Sentinel-1C headed into orbit on the opposite side of Earth from Sentinel-1A, to allow the pair a complete view of the planet for high-resolution imagery.
Vega-C is a four-stage rocket that stands 115 feet (35 meters) tall. The first three of the launch vehicle's stages are powered by solid-rocket propellant, with its fourth stage using a liquid propellant for precision orbital insertions.
Vega-C's first and second stage separations occurred on schedulde about 2.5 and 4.5 minutes after liftoff on Thursday, with its third stage following suit just after seven minutes into flight.
The rocket's upper stage flew Sentinel-1C to a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 435 miles (700 kilometers), deploying the satellite as planned about one hour and 44 minutes after liftoff.
"It is an important launch," said Giulio Ranzo, CEO of the Italian aerospace company Avio, during a prelaunch media briefing, "very important, because we will lift a flagship European satellite of the Copernicus constellation with a flagship European launcher."
Avio was contracted by the European Space Agency (ESA) as Vega-C's primary designer. Vega-C's return to flight follows the debut launch of Europe's larger Ariane 6 rocket over the summer, ultimately filling the gap in launch vehicle needs for smaller payloads and lessening Europe's reliance on other launch providers.
"We are very proud of having this capability made available, in particular to the European Commission, but in general, to all other government and non-government institutions within Europe and abroad," Ranzo said.
Sentinels-1A and C are equipped with C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instruments, which allow each to survey Earth for a variety of environmental observations. Sentinel-1C also features a new Automatic Identification System (AIS), for use by seafaring ships on Earth to avoid collisions when they are out of range of land-based radar systems.
The total of data collected as a part of the Sentinel-1 program is extensive and ongoing, and stands to be greatly aided by the addition of Sentinel-1C.
"150,000 products based on Sentinel-1 data are published and made available to users, and since the beginning of the operations of the Sentinel-1, we have generated over 30 petabytes of data and more than 14 million products were made available," Christoph Kautz, the European Commission's Director for satellite navigation and Earth observation for the Directorate-General for Defense Industry and Space (DG DEFIS), said during the recent prelaunch briefing.
Vega-C's two-year journey back to the launchpad required a design and manufacturing change to the vehicle's second-stage rocket engine nozzle. Now back in operation, Ranzo says the rocket has about 15 launches on its backlog to complete.
The hiatus in Vega-C from the rocket launch arena hasn't slowed ESA's innovations toward improvement. The space agency has already begun designing an upgraded version of Vega-C, the Vega-E, based on a new liquid oxygen (LOX)-methane engine, the M-10, for its upper stage. The M-10 is also being developed by Avio, which plans to sign implementation contracts with ESA before the end of the year, according to ESA's Director of Space Transportation Toni Tolker-Nielsen.
Sentinel-1C's partnership with its predecessor Sentinel-1A will be short-lived, as the constellation is receiving its own upgrades. The aging Sentinel-1A, which launched in 2014, is set to be replaced by Sentinel-1D next year, currently scheduled to launch in September.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 3:20 p.m. ET on Dec. 4 with news of the launch delay and the new target of Dec. 5. It was updated again at 4:40 p.m. ET on Dec. 5 with news of an on-time liftoff, then again at 6:05 p.m. ET with news of successful satellite deployment.
