Watch live the launch of the Vega-C rocket that will put the new Copernicus satellite into orbit

The European rocket Vega-C this ready for launch. Unless there is any last minute change in the weather conditions at altitude, the launch is confirmed for today, December 4at 22:20 Spain time (15:20 Mexico, 16:20 Colombia, 18:20 Argentina)from the Kourou spaceport, French Guiana. Its objective is to put the satellite into orbit Sentinel 1C, which will be part of the european constellation.

An improved launcher

Vega-C It is the successor to Vega, a rocket launcher built by the Italian company Avioin Colleferro, which has 25 launches. Today’s launch will be the third of the improved version Vega-C, developed to offer better benefits, higher payload volume and greater competitiveness. In particular, two new in-orbit propulsion stages, a higher upper stage than the previous one, a new fairing and also a new ground infrastructure have been implemented on Vega-C.

Thus, after the first flight of Ariane 6 last July, it is Vega-C’s turn to confirm the capacity of the Old Continent to have autonomous access to spaceleaving behind the need to turn to SpaceX every time you need it. have already been planned four throws more for 2025.

The European satellite Sentinel 1-C

The cargo that Vega-C will take out of Earth is a very precious one. Its task will be to put the European Space Agency (ESA) satellite into orbit at an altitude of about 700 kilometers. Sentinel 1C It was also largely built in Italy by Thales Alenia Space. Sentinel 1C is the third satellite of the program Copernicus of the European Union, developed for collect information about the health of the Earth. In 2022, Copernicus lost one of the other components of the mission, Sentinel 1B, due to a breakdown, so now the role of the new satellite, together with that of Sentinel 1A, launched in 2014, becomes even more important in being able to cover the terrestrial surveillance of the Earth. The satellites are equipped with powerful radars capable of discerning details of the planet’s surface up to 5 meters deep, in all weather and lighting conditions. Therefore, they will be crucial to study catastrophic events such as earthquakes, landslides and floods, and will also help in the territory management. At sea, thanks to its transponder, Sentinel 1C will allow the position of ships to be followed, thus contributing to the maritime security.

How to follow the launch of Vega-C live

As we have already said, except for unforeseen events that may occur, the launch is planned for this afternoon and it will be possible to continue live operations on various platforms, such as ESA Web TV (here) from 20 minutes before the launch time (22:00 Spain time, 15:00 Mexico time, 16:00 Colombia time, 18:00 Argentina time).

Article originally published in WIRED Italy. Adapted by Mauricio Serfatty Godoy.