Video: 00:04:50

ESA’s new Vega-C rocket lifted off for its inaugural flight VV21 on 13 July 2022 at 15:13 CEST/13:13 UTC/10:13 local time from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. This video features shots of the launch from different angles.

With new first and second stages and an uprated fourth stage, Vega-C increases performance to about 2.3 t in a reference 700 km polar orbit, from the 1.5 t capability of its predecessor, Vega.

For flight VV21, Vega-C’s payload is LARES-2, a scientific mission of the Italian space agency ASI and six research CubeSats from France, Italy and Slovenia.

Week in images: 18-22 July 2022

Discover our week through the lens

A large data-driven telecommunications satellite that uses innovative technology to keep cool as well as other innovations – developed under an ESA Partnership Project – has started its commercial service.

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jul 21, 2022
Every spring, migratory birds arrive in the continental United States from south and central America to breed. But precisely when they arrive each spring varies from year to year. In a NASA-led study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, scientists have linked this variability to large-scale climate patterns originating thousands of miles away. Migratory birds b

Guildford UK (SPX) Jul 22, 2022
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Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jul 21, 2022
In June and July 2022, heatwaves struck Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, as temperatures climbed above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in places and broke many long-standing records. The map above shows the surface air temperatures across most of the Eastern Hemisphere on July 13, 2022. It was produced by combining observations with a version of the Goddard Eart

Kyoto City, Japan (SPX) Jul 22, 2022
Among the many functions performed by skeletal muscles, an important one is maintaining our posture. If it weren't for these muscles, Earth's gravitational pull may make it difficult for us to stand and walk around. The group of muscles-mostly present in our limbs, back, and neck-which are responsible for maintaining our posture and allowing us to move against the force of gravity are rightly ca

Boca Raton FL (SPX) Jul 22, 2022
Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP), a global leader in satellite solutions, primarily serving the United States and Allied aerospace and defense industries, has announced the commissioning of the Fleet Space CENTAURI-5 payload. The payload provides Machine to Machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity to ground terminals and is an improved version of the payloads flown on CENTA

Cambridge UK (SPX) Jul 22, 2022
A team of astronomers has developed a method that will allow them to 'see' through the fog of the early Universe and detect light from the first stars and galaxies. The researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, have developed a methodology that will allow them to observe and study the first stars through the clouds of hydrogen that filled the Universe about 378,000 years after the B

Laurel MD (SPX) Jul 22, 2022
Using data collected over two decades ago, scientists from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, have compiled the first complete map of hydrogen abundances on the Moon's surface. The map identifies two types of lunar materials containing enhanced hydrogen and corroborates previous ideas about lunar hydrogen and water, including findings that water likely played