May 7 – After little more than a year from its first successful launch, Vega, the Advanced Generation European Carrier Rocket, executed a perfect lift-off from the European base of Kourou in French Guyana. A few minutes after 4 o’clock this morning, Vega began it first operational mission, carrying three satellites built by ESA (the European Space Agency), Vietnam and Estonia. “This major success – said Enrico Saggese, President of the Italian Space Agency – confirms the role of excellence Italy holds in the space industry. Vega is the pride of our country; its high industrial value makes us protagonists on the world stage.” To continue the Italian trend, not only is Vega produced in Italy, but its guidance program is as well, including navigation controls. The Italian Space Agency provides more than 65% of funding to the program. ” Vega – said the head of ESA launchers, Antonio Fabrizi – is a beautiful product, which works perfectly, provides excellent performance and allows us to look to the future with confidence.” First conceptualized by ISA in the ‘90s, Vega brings in orbit the ESA Proba-V satellite, which will conduct a global census of Earth’s vegetation, the Vietnamese satellite Vnredsat, and a small Estonian research mission based on cubesat.
