Watch Europe’s Vega C rocket launch its 2nd mission Tuesday evening

Europe’s Vega C rocket is scheduled to launch on its second-ever mission on Tuesday evening (Dec. 20), and you’ll watch the motion reside.

The medium-lift Vega C is scheduled to elevate off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on Tuesday at 9:57 p.m. EST (10:47 p.m. native time; 0257 GMT on Dec. 21). You may watch the launch reside right here at Area.com, courtesy of Arianespace, which operates the Vega C, or directly via the France-based company (opens in new tab).

The 115-foot-tall (35 meters) Vega C rocket will carry to sun-synchronous orbit the satellites Pléiades Neo 5 and Pléiades Neo 6, which collectively weigh 4,359 kilos (1,977 kilograms).

Associated: The history of rockets

The 2 spacecraft will full the Pléiades Neo Earth-imaging constellation, which is owned and operated by European aerospace large Airbus. 

“The constellation is made of 4 similar satellites, constructed utilizing the newest Airbus improvements and technological developments, and permits to picture any level of the globe, a number of occasions per day, at 30-centimeter [12 inches] decision,” Arianespace wrote in a description of the coming Vega C mission (opens in new tab).

“Extremely agile and reactive, they are often tasked as much as quarter-hour earlier than acquisition and ship the pictures again to Earth throughout the following hour,” Arianespace added. “Smaller, lighter, extra agile, correct and reactive than the competitors, they’re the primary of their class whose capability will probably be absolutely commercially out there.”

Tuesday’s launch was initially scheduled for Nov. 24 however was delayed almost a month to exchange defective gear on the Vega C. This work required taking the rocket again to a processing facility at Kourou and opening its payload fairing, Arianespace representatives said via Twitter last month (opens in new tab).

Vega C was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and is now operated by Arianespace. The brand new rocket is a extra highly effective variant of the unique Vega, which made its debut in 2012.

Vega C’s inaugural flight occurred this past July, when the rocket efficiently launched a 650-pound (295 kg) Italian spacecraft and 6 tiny tagalong cubesats to orbit.

Arianespace at present has three operational rockets in its secure: the 2 Vegas and Ariane 5, a robust heavy lifter. The corporate flew Russian-built Soyuz rockets for years as nicely however stopped doing so after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Arianespace can even fly the Ariane 6, the successor to the Ariane 5. ESA continues to be creating the brand new heavy lifter, which is anticipated to launch for the primary time in late 2023.

Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a ebook in regards to the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).