Journalists are invited to learn more about the last flight of Europe’s Vega launch (known as VV24), carrying satellite Sentinel-2C, by joining a pre-launch media briefing in English, followed by question-and-answer sessions in French, German, Italian and Spanish. All events will be held online and take place on 29 August.

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission provides high-resolution optical imagery for a wide range of applications including land, water and atmospheric monitoring. The mission is based on a constellation of two identical satellites flying in the same orbit but 180° apart: Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B. Together, they cover all of Earth’s land and coastal waters every five days.

Sentinel-2C will be flown by expert teams at ESA’s ESOC mission control centre, Darmstadt, Germany and will continue the legacy of its predecessors delivering high-resolution data that is essential to Copernicus – the Earth observation component of the EU Space Programme.

Vega was the very first rocket development programme entirely managed by ESA, built to send small satellites into low Earth orbit. Designed by Avio, who is also the prime contractor, the rocket is operated by Arianespace. Vega consists of four stages, the first three propelled by solid propellant motors and the last stage uses liquid propulsion.

Vega’s inaugural flight took place in February 2012 and since then, it has taken more than 100 missions to space from dozens of European institutions but also customers around the world. The Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B satellites were also launched on Vega.

This final launch marks the handover of Vega to the upgraded Vega-C. Vega has for years ensured that Europe has a versatile, independent access to space, complementing the Ariane family of rockets to launch any satellite to any orbit – continuing with Vega-C and Ariane 6.

The programme below highlights the different media activities planned ahead of launch and their respective registration process.
Please note that journalists wishing to attend several of the events mentioned below should register for each activity separately to ensure that they receive the right link/information for each event. 

https://blogs.esa.int/forms/ninja-forms/4oqw8