Vega
Arianespace
Europe's retired small satellite dedicated launcher that flew 22 missions from 2012 to 2024 with a 91% success rate.
Key figurescomparable across the catalogue
- Payload capacity
- 1,430 kg
Normalised to common units so this product can be compared with others in its category. The supplier's own wording is below.
As published by the supplier
- Payload to SSO (700 km)
- ~1,430 kg
- Payload to Polar Orbit (400 km)
- ~1,450 kg
- Stage 1 (P80FW) Thrust
- 2,261 kN
- Stage 2 (Zefiro-23) Thrust
- 871 kN
- Stage 3 (Zefiro-9) Thrust
- 260 kN
- Stage 4 (AVUM) Engine
- RD-843 (restartable liquid)
- Fairing Diameter
- 2.6 m
- Height
- 30 m
- Launch Site
- Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana
- Operational Period
- 2012–2024
- Total Launches
- 22 (20 successes)
- Status
- Retired — succeeded by Vega-C
About
Vega (Vettore Europeo di Generazione Avanzata) was Europe’s dedicated small satellite launch vehicle, developed as an ESA program and operated commercially by Arianespace from its inaugural flight in February 2012 through its final mission in 2024. It complemented the heavy-lift Ariane 5 by providing affordable, dedicated access to polar and sun-synchronous orbits for payloads between 300 kg and 2,000 kg.
Vega used a four-stage architecture: three solid propellant stages (P80FW first stage, Zefiro-23 second stage, Zefiro-9 third stage) provided the main propulsion, while a restartable liquid-propellant AVUM (Attitude and Vernier Upper Module) fourth stage enabled precise multi-burn orbital delivery. This combination of solid-stage efficiency and liquid-stage precision was a key design advantage, enabling both cost-effective manufacturing and the multi-orbit mission profiles that small satellite customers increasingly required.
Over its 22-mission operational career, Vega achieved 20 successes and 2 failures (VV15 in July 2019 due to a fairing/payload adapter manufacturing error, and VV17 in November 2020 due to an upper stage wiring harness inversion). The vehicle launched more than 100 satellites from 22 countries including ESA Copernicus Earth observation satellites, optical reconnaissance satellites, and commercial Earth imaging payloads.
Vega was fully succeeded by the upgraded Vega-C (which flew from 2022), offering approximately 50% greater payload capacity and a larger fairing. The Vega program was one of the most cost-effective dedicated small satellite launchers in history.
Documentation
No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.