Assemble of the first stage on the French Guiana base
Tonight's Vega launch has been scrubbed due to unfavorable high-altitude winds over
the launch base.
May 05: With high-altitude winds still troublesome over French Guiana, Arianespace officials
have put off the flight of Europe's second Vega launcher until at least Monday night. Photo credit: ESA/Stephane Corvaja
Launch vehicle:
Vega
Launch vehicle ID:
VV02
Payload:
PROBA-V, VNREDSat 1a & ESTCube 1
Launch date:
07 May 2013
Launch site:
Ko, ELA-1
Description:
Arianespace's Vega rocket made a second successful flight on May 7, 2013.
Flying north-northwest from Kourou, the three solid stages reached a
near-orbital trajectory of around -370 x 226 km. Stage 3 reentered over
the Canadian Arctic around 0228 UTC. The AVUM liquid fourth
stage then made a first burn to about 289 x 820 km at 0217 UTC; at 0300
UTC a second burn circularized the orbit at apogee and the upper
payload, Proba-V, was deployed into a 787 x 828 km x 98.7 deg
orbit. A third burn at 0310 UTC lowered perigee, leading to a
670 x 815 km orbit. At 0357 UTC the lid of the dual payload adapter, Vespa, was
ejected, and at 0400 UTC AVUM's burn 4 recircularized the orbit at 669 x
673 km x 98.1 deg. The lower payload VNREDSAT-1 was ejected at 0404 UTC,
with the 1U cubesat ESTCube-1 deployed three minutes later. At 0423 UTC
the AVUM stage was scheduled to make a deorbit burn for disposal in the
South Pacific, probably reentering around 0510 UTC west of southern Chile.