Colleferro, 22 Marzo 2019 – Italy is behind tonight’s 14th successful VEGA space launcher mission, built by Avio. At about 3AM tonight, the rocket produced in Colleferro, near Rome, took off from the space base in French Guiana, bringing into orbit the PRISMA satellite, owned by the Italian Space Agency and built by a group of companies headed by OHB Italia, with Telespazio and Leonardo.

Kourou (French Guiana), August 22, 2018 – Vega, the European launcher designed, developed and constructed in Italy by Avio, has successfully concluded its first mission of 2018, correctly placing in orbit the ESA’s Aeolus satellite.

This represents Vega’s twelfth consecutive success since its first mission of February 2012. The European launcher again demonstrates its major reliability: for the first time in fact, a new launcher has had its first 12 launches without issue or anomaly.

Vega, the European launcher built by Avio, was chosen by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the launch of its ADM-Aeolus satellite scheduled for late 2017.

The mission will play a key role in the Earth exploration program as ADM-Aeolus will enable three-dimensional observation of the winds, thereby helping scientists to gain more detailed knowledge on the subject and improve mathematical models on the atmosphere’s behaviour. The direct result of the mission will be improved quality of weather forecasting and of climate research.