Arianespace’s Vega rocket is on track to conduct its Return To Flight (RTF) mission in March after stacking operations began at the European Spaceport in French Guiana. Vega suffered the first failure of her career during the July 2019 launch of Falcon Eye-1.
Vega’s return will involve the lofting of numerous satellites, with the manifest of passengers growing as the mission heads towards a March 23 launch date.
The SSMS POC flight is a rideshare mission, involving tens of satellites ranging from 10 Astrocast 1 smallsats to a Royal Thai Air Force CubeSat and numerous Dove spacecraft.
Planet Labs was the latest to confirm their involvement with the launch.
“Following on the heels of the successful launch of Flock 4p in November of 2019, Planet’s first launch of 2020 will be on Arianespace’s European-made Vega rocket, a first for the Doves. The 26 SuperDoves, Flock 4v, are scheduled for lift-off on March 23, 2020 from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana,” noted the company.
The 26 Flock 4v SuperDoves will be split into two batches on the same launch, with 14 of them will be housed inside and deployed from ISL’s QuadPack deployers and the remaining 12 will be deployed from D-Orbit’s InOrbit Now (ION) free-flying deployment platform.
Planet Labs also noted over 200 Dove satellites have successfully deployed from ISL’s QuadPack system, although this will be the first flight of D-Orbit’s ION system, and those satellites will be deployed over a handful of weeks.
Signs the launch was on track came via photos showing stacking operations taking place at the launch center.
