Aviation International News reports that “the flagship James Webb Space Telescope has begun its 14-day journey from the coast of California through the Panama Canal to the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, program scientist Eric Smith told NASA’s Astrophysics Advisory Committee Sept. 29.”
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Tag: French Guiana
James Webb Space Telescope to Launch December 22
SPACE reports that mission team members “have finished fueling the James Webb Space Telescope at ahead of its planned Dec. 22 launch from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, the European Space Agency announced Monday.” The fueling for the Webb telescope “took 10 days and was completed on Dec. 3.”
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Vega C Makes Maiden Flight
Space News reports that the new Vega C medium-lift rocket took off on its maiden flight Wednesday, “carrying an Italian physics satellite and six cubesats.” The Vega C was launched from the ESA facility in Kourou, French Guiana at 9:13 a.m. EST “at the end of a two-hour launch window. Technical issues had twice halted the countdown sequence.” The primary payload was the 295-kilogram Laser Relativity Satellite-2 (LARES-2), placed “in an unusual inclined orbit at 5,893 kilometers to test Einstein’s theory of General Relativity.”
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Video
First launch of the ESA’s new Vega-C launch vehicle, July 13, 2022
(SciNews via YouTube)
Vega-C Rocket Launches European Forest-Monitoring Satellite from South America
SPACE reports, “A European forest-monitoring satellite headed toward orbit from South America early Tuesday morning (April 29). The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Biomass spacecraft lifted off atop a Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on Tuesday at 5:15 a.m. EDT (0915 GMT; 6:15 a.m. local time in Korea). Arianespace’s stream began at 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT), and the launch can now be watched on demand.”
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Video
Flight VV26 | Biomass | Vega C (Launch occurs at 22:45)
(Arianespace; YouTube)
Vega C Successfully Launches for First Time in Nearly Two Years
Space News reports, “A Vega C successfully launched an Earth observation satellite Dec. 5 in the rocket’s first flight since a failure nearly two years ago. The Vega C lifted off from the European spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, at 4:20 p.m. Eastern. The launch was previously scheduled for Dec. 4 but delayed a day because a problem with the mobile launch gantry at the pad.”
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Video
Vega-C rocket launches Sentinel-1C satellite in return to flight, Dec. 5, 2024 (Launch at 37:02 mark)
(VideoFromSpace; YouTube)