Mountain View . Second American contract in a few days, after the one with Skybox-Google, for the little ESA rocket ‘made in Italy’. Europe’s Arianespace launch consortium it will use a Vega to launch Peru’s high-resolution optical reconnaissance satellite in the first half of 2016, under a contract signed March 25 with Airbus Defence and Space, the satellite’s builder. Airbus won the PeruSat-1 contract in April 2014 after a heated competition among European and Israeli satellite builders. The 450-kilogram PeruSat-1, owned by Peru’s Ministry of Defense, will share a Vega launch with four 110-kilogram satellites for Skybox Imaging, now owned by Google. Under the delivery-in-orbit contract, Airbus is responsible for the Peruvian satellite’s launch as well as its construction. (9colonne)
