Pléiades-Neo

Meet the Pléiades-Neo series of Earth observation satellites for France.

Built by Airbus Defence and Space, the constellation will have four satellites, each able to clearly see objects as small as 30 cm on the ground from 700 km orbits.

The four satellites will use lasers to communicate and transmit data to the ground through the European Data Relay Satellite system.

Pléiades-Neo 3 is the first of the four satellites to launch. At 750 kg, it is the largest satellite being taken to space on this mission and is considered the “primary passenger”.

Small Spacecraft Mission Service

Joining Pléiades-Neo 3 are a number of smaller satellites riding to space together as part of Arienspace’s second Small Spacecraft Mission Service flight, or SSMS.

SSMS is a dedicated small satellite launch program from Europe that takes advantage of additional space on the Vega rocket.

One of these is Ireland’s first satellite, EIRSAT-1, from students at University College Dublin.

It will stay in space for one year studying gamma rays, new hull treatments for future spacecraft to study the Sun, and new ways to control a spacecraft’s orientation in orbit.

Photo: Pléiades-Neo 3, from Airbus Defence and Space

Vega (Italian: Vettore Europeo di Generazione Avanzata, French: Vecteur européen de génération avancée, literal translation: Vector European Generation Advanced) joined the family of launch vehicles at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana in 2012. It has demonstrated impressive capabilities ranging from equatorial to Sun-synchronous orbits, from orbital to suborbital missions, from single to multiple payloads.

Unlike most small rockets, Vega is able to lift payloads ranging from a single satellite up to one main satellite plus additional small satellites and place them into separate orbits on a single mission.

Vega is designed to deliver about 1500 kg into a 700 km-altitude circular orbit at 90° inclination. This makes Vega the ideal launch vehicle for most scientific and Earth observation missions. Launching into an equatorial orbit enabled Vega to carry the maximum payload capacity of 2 tonnes with ESA’s experimental IXV spaceplane.

Vega Elements

Vega is a 3 m-diameter single-body vehicle, standing 30 m tall with a liftoff mass of 137 tonnes. It has three solid-propellant stages and a liquid-propellant upper module for attitude and orbit control as well as satellite release.

Vega History

Vega officially became an ESA programme in June 1998, when the Agency inherited the small-launcher programme of Italy’s ASI space agency.

Following Vega’s debut on 13 February 2012, ESA ensured a smooth transition of Vega from development to exploitation. This included securing the initial exploitation of Vega by supporting the development of complementary technical advances and demonstrating a range of capabilities and flexibility over five more launches.

Vega moved to full commercial exploitation in December 2015.

At the same time, ESA refined and improved the launch system configuration and operations. This lowered costs mainly by speeding up the launch campaign.

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.

In a proof of concept flight in 2020, Vega demonstrated a new modular payload dispenser called the Small Spacecraft Mission Service (SSMS) designed to meet the need for affordable routine rideshare missions to space for multiple small satellites.

Caption courtesy of ESA.

The Ensemble de Lancement Vega (ELV) pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais (Guiana Space Centre) was previously used to launch the Europa, Ariane 1, Ariane 2, and Ariane 3 rockets under a different name.

It hosted its first launch on November 5, 1971, when a Europa rocket carried the STV-4 payload. The pad was last used in 1989 for the final Ariane 3 launch before going unused until 2012, when Vega began operations.

Located in French Guiana, the ELV pad is part of the French and European spaceport near Kourou, on the northern coast of South America.

Guiana Space Centre

The Guiana Space Centre has been operational since 1968, serving the European Space Agency (ESA), the French National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), and commercial companies such as Arianespace and Azercosmos.

A total of nine different rocket types have launched from the spaceport, including three active rockets and six retired vehicles.

The current launch vehicles operating from the Guiana Space Centre include:

Ariane 5 – for heavy payloads.

Soyuz 2 (provided by Russia) – for medium-mass satellites.

Vega – for smaller spacecraft.

The spaceport is also preparing for the upcoming Ariane 6, Vega C, and Vega E rockets, which are currently under development.

Photo courtesy of European Space Agency - S. Corvaja