Arianespace Flight VV18 - Launch Sequence

On Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 10:50 pm local time (01:50 UTC on Thursday, April 29), a Vega launch vehicle operated by Arianespace lifted off successfully from the Guiana Space Center, Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana (South America). This mission marked Vega’s return to flight, and was also the second successful launch by Arianespace’s teams in less than 72 hours. The mission’s primary purpose was orbiting Pleiades Neo 3, the first of four satellites in an advanced Earth observation constellation. Pleiades Neo 3 was wholly funded and manufactured by its operator, Airbus. Arianespace’s 18th Vega mission also deployed several small satellites using its innovative rideshare service SSMS (Small Spacecraft Mission Service). These auxiliary payloads included an observation microsatellite for the Norwegian space agency, Norsat-3, and four cubesats, for the operators Eutelsat, NanoAvionics/Aurora Insight and Spire. The SSMS rideshare service, developed with the support of the European space indust