

Europe's new rocket, Vega, launches in a few minutes; live stream - jgrahamc
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Vega/SEM8QAWX7YG_0.html

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arethuza
Note that Arianespace have recently also have had their first couple of
launches using Soyuz rockets from Kourou:

[http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/10/arianespace-soyuz-
st-...](http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/10/arianespace-soyuz-st-b-debut-
launch-csg-two-galileo-iovs/)

[http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/12/soyuz-st-launch-
six-s...](http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2011/12/soyuz-st-launch-six-
satellites-from-kourou/)

Arianespace now have a fairly nice family of launchers - Ariane 5, Soyuz and
now Vega.

~~~
snippyhollow
Thanks! I found more information here:
[http://esamultimedia.esa.int/multimedia/publications/europe-...](http://esamultimedia.esa.int/multimedia/publications/europe-
launchers/pageflip.html) (Particularly on "why such launchers?" Who takes part
in which, and the re-entry vehicle.)

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iamichi
Here is the video of the launch, for those that missed it.
<http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Vega/SEMJ8LYXHYG_0.html>

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zrgiu_
Romania's first satellite is on that rocket. Congrats and good luck !

~~~
ajuc
Polish first satellite is in it, too :)

[http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/86192,Polands-first-
ever-...](http://www.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/86192,Polands-first-ever-
satellite-launched)

~~~
Create
Hungarian first satellite is in it, too :)

hint: these are _not really_ Romanian, Polish or Hungarian satellites...

ALMASat - [http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=...](http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=73) PW-Sat - [http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=...](http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=144) Xatcobeo - [http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=...](http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=145) Robusta - [http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=...](http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=146) e-st@r - [http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=...](http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=147) Goliat - [http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=...](http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=148) Masat-1 - [http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=...](http://www.amsat.org/amsat-
new/satellites/satInfo.php?satID=149)

DIY some more:

<http://www.cubesatkit.com/>

<http://www.pumpkininc.com/content/doc/forms/pricelist.pdf>

~~~
riffraff
sorry if I'm dumb and don't get the hint: what do you mean by "this are not
really romanian, polish or hungarian" ?

~~~
masklinn
"romanian satellite", "polish satellite" or "hungarian satellite" would often
(usually) be understood as a major piece fully designed and built by the
country in question. CubeSats are academic projects (literally), and
technically they're all from AMSAT so they're american :)

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sho_hn
Wikipedia: "Development began in 1998"

14 years to develop a 300-2000 kg rocket at an established player
(Arianespace) sounds _slow_ to me.

~~~
willvarfar
Are you saying its behind schedule, or over budget, or under-delivering?

Are you saying you think it should have been rushed?

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VMG
The Apollo program was announced in in 1961. The moon landing was in 1969.

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rplnt
Apollo was driven by politics. It had almost no budget limits. You really
can't compare these two.

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venti
Amsat has a list of the cube-sats launched with Vega and their frequencies in
the amateur radio bands: <http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/> (scroll down to the
end of the page).

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bwarp
Thanks for posting this. I'd completely forgotten about it.

Good luck to all involved. It's nice to see a proper engineering project being
tested, hopefully not to destruction!

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wtfdog
Does anybody know what S in the onscreen graphics is, and what "dog" is an
abbreviation of?

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wolf550e
So, is it cheaper per kilogram to LEO than SpaceX Falcon 1e?

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kiloaper
Is the Falcon 1e in commerical operation yet?

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dasmoth
Falcon 1e seems to be pretty-much on hold at the moment. The Falcon 1 launch
site on Kwajalein has been dismantled. As far as I can tell, SpaceX are
focussing on deploying smallsats as secondary payloads on Falcon 9, rather
than flying them as independent launches.

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willvarfar
was awesome, thx for the link, just got in in time :)

