Vega flight VV16, also called SSMS PoC Flight (for ''Small Spacecraft Mission Service Proof of Concept Flight''), was the launch of the

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, and ...

rocket. The launch was also notable as it was the first

launch following the accident of the VV15 launch in July 2019 that caused the loss of FalconEye1 satellite.

Payload

This first

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

rideshare commercial flight for 21 customers embarked a total of 65 satellites (53 satellites to be released by the launch vehicle directly plus an additional 12 that were later released by one of them) arranged in the modular SSMS dispenser. Of the 53 satellites that were released, 7

microsatellites A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organism's genome. T ...

weigh between 15.4 kg and 150 kg (one of them contained 12

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...

s), while the other 46 are smaller

s (between 0.25U and 6U) weighing between 0.250 kg and 7 kg:

Launch campaign

Launch campaign activities were significantly affected by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. To prevent the spread of the epidemic in

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

and protect

Guiana Space Centre The Guiana Space Centre (; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas region of France in South America. Kourou is located approxim ...

employees, all launch activities were suspended on 16 March 2020. Operations for VV16 and Ariane flight VA253 could not resume until 28 April 2020. VV16 activities were listed among the top priorities at the reopening of the Guiana Space Center on 11 May 2020. It was initially scheduled to take place on 19 June 2020 at 01:51:10

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

but got postponed due to unfavourable high-altitude winds. The launch was then postponed to take place on 27 June 2020, and later to 29 June 2020 due to the weather conditions, and had to be postponed again until 17 August 2020. Then postponed due to Ariane 5 flight VA253 launch on 15 August 2020 at 22:04 UTC.

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in March 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It operates two launch vehicles: Vega C, a Small-lift launch vehicle, small-lift rocket, and Ariane 6, a Medium-lift launch vehicl ...

announced on 1 September 2020 that the mission was postponed. Typhoon Maysak is forecast to move near the

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

n island of Jeju, the site of a telemetry station needed to track the Vega rocket after it lifts off from

. The tracking station will be secured ahead of the typhoon's arrival. "A new launch date will be set based on the evolution of the tropical storm's situation over the Jeju station and its consequences", Arianespace said in a statement. The launch date was further adjusted to 2 September 2020, then on 3 September 2020 at 01:51:10

Flight

The flight was launched from the ELV launch pad in

Kourou Kourou (; ) is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It ...

Centre Spatial Guyanais The Guiana Space Centre (; CSG), also called Europe's Spaceport, is a spaceport to the northwest of Kourou in French Guiana, an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas region of France in South America. Kourou is located approxim ...

. It deployed all satellites into 2 slightly different

Sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

s: the 7 heaviest satellites were separated at an altitude of roughly 515 km (starting 40 minutes and 25 seconds until 52 minutes and 35 seconds after liftoff), before the upper stage was re-ignited to place the 46 lightest satellites at an altitude of approximately 530 km (starting 1 hour 42 minutes and 16 seconds until 1 hour 44 minutes and 56 seconds after liftoff).

References

External links

Vega flight VV16
at

{{Arianespace launches Vega (rocket) 2020 in French Guiana Rocket launches in 2020

Payload

Launch campaign

Flight

See also

References

External links