Latest Spaceport Stories

[ Watch the Launch Replay ] The European Space Agency's (ESA) Vega launch vehicle successfully lifted off from the ground this morning. The new launch vehicle is ready to operate alongside the Ariane 5 and Soyuz launchers after Monday's qualification flight in Kourou, French Guiana. ESA said that with this launch being successful, Europe now covers the full range of launch needs, including small science and Earth observation satellites, to missions like resupplying the International...

Join us for the first qualification flight of the Vega launch vehicle on Monday 13 February, with a launch window open from 11:00 to 12:30 CET (10:00 to 11:30 GMT). Vega will lift off from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, to release nine satellites into orbit and add a new capability to Europe's fleet of launch systems. Live transmission starts at 10:40 CET. The payload consists of two Italian satellites – ASI’s LARES laser relativity satellite and the University of...

Fuel, water, oxygen, air and most of the dry cargo have been loaded into ESA's third Automated Transfer Vehicle, Edoardo Amaldi, as the 9 March liftoff approaches. Since arrival at Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, last August, the space ferry has been undergoing intensive preparations to fly to the International Space Station next month. The vessel's mission is set to start with liftoff at 10:00 GMT (11:00 CET) on 9 March on a powerful Ariane 5 ES launcher. It will dock...

ESA’s new Vega rocket is now fully assembled on its launch pad. Final preparations are in full swing for the rocket’s inaugural flight from Europe’s Spaceport. The launch window opens on 9 February. The upper composite, comprising LARES, ALMASat-1, seven CubeSats, the payload adapter and the fairing, was moved to the pad late Monday night. A night transfer is the standard practice in Kourou to avoid overheating the payloads. The move ended early Tuesday morning with its...

Final checkout of Europe’s new Vega launcher was completed last Friday, marking another milestone towards its maiden flight from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The first Vega launch campaign began in November with the installation of the P80 first stage on the launch pad. The two solid-propellant second and third stages were added to the vehicle, followed by the AVUM – Attitude & Vernier Upper Module – liquid-propellant fourth stage. All four stages have...

First launch of Vega Europe's family of launchers will welcome its smallest member, Vega. Location: CSG, Europe's Spaceport (French Guiana) Date: 9 February BepiColombo presentation to media ESA's mission to explore Mercury will undergo extensive testing in 2012. The complete launch stack configuration (Structural and Thermal Model), composed of the European and Japanese orbiters, the Transfer Module and the Sunshield, will be assembled for mechanical testing and presented to the...

A Russian Soyuz rocket lifted off this weekend from French Guiana’s Sinamary spaceport, only the second time a Soyuz rocket has ever lifted off from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) new launch facility in South America. The rocket carried six low-orbit military-industrial satellites into space, including France’s Pleiades 1 satellite, designed to generate 3D and color images for both military and industrial use. The satellite has been designed to take pictures on the ground as small...

The integration of Vega’s first, second and third stages is now complete at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. The new rocket is moving full speed ahead towards its maiden flight at the end of January. The first Vega launch campaign began in November with the installation and testing inside the mobile gantry of the hundred-ton solid-propellant first stage, the P80, and the Interstage-1/2 structure that links the first two stages. The booster’s final acceptance included testing...

Virginia legislators are proposing a tax break for residents who want their remains launched into space when they pass. The legislation is being proposed in part to boost the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, and to also boost the economy in general. The General Assembly is set to debate the proposal next year, which could provide a state income tax deduction of up to $8,000 effective from 2013 to 2020 for those wishing to be buried in space. “I know there's a giggle...

As developers scramble for alternatives in the wake of Adobe’s announcement to discontinue mobile Flash, Spaceport 3.0 integrates Adobe’s popular desktop-based creation tools with high performance rendering engines on iOS and Android with an HTML5 JavaScript-based Flash-like API Burlingame, Calif. (PRWEB) November 17, 2011 In the wake of Adobe’s announcement last week that it will suspend all further development of its mobile Flash plug-in, a vacuum has emerged for...