@woolfrown84
Profile
Registered: 1 year, 8 months ago
Vega Launcher Makes First Flight First flight of Vega launcher By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News 13 February 2012 The first flight of Europe's new Vega rocket was flawless. The rocket was ignited by controllers at the Kourou spaceport, French Guiana, at 07:00 GMT (10:00 GMT), and completed its mission 70 minutes later. The vehicle is 30m tall and was designed to place small satellites of government and scientific research in orbit. Vega's first mission carried nine payloads into space. This included a physics experiment to verify Einstein's theory about general relativity. Jean-Jacques Dordain was the director general of European Space Agency (Esa). "A new member to the launcher familia has been born." Member states of Esa, together with their industries, are investing more than a billion euros in the introduction of Vega. The vehicle will allow satellites of less than 2.5 tonnes to access space. At the moment, these smaller spacecraft, which include many Earth observation satellites, tend to ride decommissioned Russian nuclear missiles to get into orbit. However, European operators may have to wait for months before they can get a launch slot for these converted ICBMs. Vega should give them more control over the scheduling of their space projects. Welcome to tlauncher club It also means that the European economy will be able to benefit from what is an extremely high-tech company. Vega is a rocket with four stages. The rocket's three first segments use solid fuel. Its fourth and final stage uses liquid propulsion. The spacecraft can be stopped, restarted and re-started several times to achieve the desired orbit. The stage can also come out of the sky - a feature that is very important given the growing concern about space debris. Monday's mission was intended to qualify the overall Vega system, including the rocket vehicle itself and all its ground infrastructure and operations systems. The Lares (Laser Relativity Satellite), which was the largest satellite carried in Vega's orbit, was the spacecraft. This payload of 400kg was created by the Italian Space Agency (Asi) and looks similar to a hi tech "disco ball". The tungsten globe is 37cm wide and features 92 reflectors. These reflectors will be used to make precise laser range measurements from Earth. Lares' purpose is to study one consequence of general relativity known as "frame-dragging". This phenomenon is also known as the Lense-Thirring affect, and describes how the Earth twists time-space around as it turns. Lares was successfully released into a 1,450km-altitude circular orbit some 55 minutes into the flight. The eight remaining satellites were ejected about 15 minutes later. They are all much smaller then Lares, most of which weigh less than a kilogram. These university-produced payloads include the first ever spacecraft from Poland, Romania and Hungary. Vega will take flight from a refurbished pad formerly owned by the Ariane 1 Its four stages and satellite payload are assembled on the launch site Satellites can weigh between a few tens of kilograms and a maximum of 2,500kg The "reference mission" is a 1.5t satellite placed in a 700km high polar orbit [email protected] and follow me on Twitter Vega: Independence for Europe 12 February 2012 Launch date for Vega rocket set 9 January 2012 A rocket abroad - Soyuz in French Guiana 18 October 2011 Ariane rocket aims to pick up the pace 25 June 2011 European rocket is maintained by funding 18 March 2011 High-speed reentry wedge 17 June 2009 Asi CNES Arianespace ELV SpA Vitrociset
Website: https://stanleycasey5.livejournal.com/profile
Forums
Topics Started: 0
Replies Created: 0
Forum Role: Participant