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He left today July 13 from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana the brand new European launcher, the Vega C. It was not just any launch: today was the maiden flight of this jewel of astronautics, the first flight that takes place following years of work, design and technical checks of all kinds and inaugurating a new era for Europe in space.
What is Vega C
It is a colossus almost 35 meters high and can carry up to 2200 kilograms load in low earth orbit through the use of three stages (the segments of the rocket that ignite in sequence to achieve the necessary thrust), one with liquid propellant and two with solid propellant. Developed, built and integrated by Avio SpA di Colleferro (RM), the Vega C represents an evolution compared to the classic Vega who, on the other hand, could not carry more than 1500. The Vega C is in fact more powerful: it has larger thrusters that allow it to carry a greater load. In addition, the Vega C has a new range of cargo trolleys that allow it to carry satellites of various shapes and sizes. These facts have a great bearing on the role of this new launcher on the market. The result of these updates is in fact that if the load of the Vega allowed to cover only the 50% of customer requests, with Vega C this value even rises to 90%. It is no coincidence that even before its debut the Vega C was already ready for nine launches, booked by European and international customers, such as the Copernicus of the European Space Agency.
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What it is carrying into orbit
The inaugural launch has as its main objective the verification that everything is going as it should. But it certainly wasn’t an opportunity to lose with an unloaded rocket. The main cargo on today’s maiden flight is the satellite Lares 2a satellite built for the Italian Space Agency by theNational Institute of Nuclear Physics. It is an atypical satellite: a nickel sphere of 42 centimeters in diameter which aims at the experimental verification of a fascinating consequence of General Relativity. From an altitude of 6,000 kilometers, the sphere is highly reflective and will be hit by laser beams sent by some stations from Earth. The goal is to measure its position with great precision in order to understand in great detail how it is affected by Earth’s gravity. The test in particular serves to measure the so-called Frame Dragginga relativistic phenomenon linked to the rotation of the planet and – therefore – to the deformation it causes in the fabric of space-time.
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