The European Space Agency’s small and versatile single-body rocket, which officially became an ESA programme in June 1998, when it inherited the small-launcher programme of Italy’s ASI space agency. First launched in February 2012, the 30-m-tall, 137-tonne rocket has three solid-propellant stages and a liquid-propellant upper module for attitude control, and satellite release. Vega is benchmarked to loft 1 500 kg into a 700-km-altitude circular orbit at 90 degrees inclination, making it an ideal launcher for most scientific and Earth observation missions.

Unlike most small launchers, Vega is also able to place multiple payloads into orbit and is designed to cope with a wide range of missions and payload configurations to respond to different market opportunities. Vega moved to full commercial exploitation in December 2015. The Vega launches in 2015 (IXV, Sentinel-2A, and LISA Pathfinder) displayed the capacity of the system to reach three missions per year, providing confidence to customers and helping Arianespace to maintain its lead in this market segment.

Artist's concept of a Vega C rocket.

Photo Credit: ESA