Vega-C | Biomass
Go for Launch
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Instantaneous launch window.
Launch Window
April 29, 2025, 9:15 a.m. - April 29, 2025, 9:15 a.m.
Instantaneous launch window.
April 29, 2025, 9:15 a.m. - April 29, 2025, 9:15 a.m.
Biomass is an European Space Agency mission designed to measure the density of carbon stored in the world's forests. The spacecraft, built by Airbus Defence and Space, features the first civilian P-band synthetic aperture radar as well as a 12m-diameter deployable reflector from L3Harris made of over 900 km of gold-coated molybdenum 25µm wire. With a minimum operational lifetime of 5 years in its 666km 6am/6pm sun-synchronous orbit, the global coverage achieved every 9 months allows to precisely monitor the evolution of forests over time.
GO for launch.
NET early April.
Targeting March 2025
Launcher swapped with one for Sentinel-2C in summer 2023.
NET Q2 2024.
Vega-C is a single-body rocket nearly 35 m high with that weighs 210 tonnes on the launch pad. As with Vega, its main elements are three solid-propellant stages, an upper stage powered by a reignitable liquid-propellant engine and a payload fairing. Vega-C's P120C first stage replaces Vega’s smaller P80 to provide a significant increase in thrust at liftoff. It is also used as boosters (2 or 4) for the Ariane 6 rocket.
See DetailsAvio S.p.A. is an Italian company operating in the aerospace sector with its head office in Colleferro near Rome, Italy. Founded in 1908, it is present in Italy and abroad with different commercial offices and 10 production sites.
INFO WIKI
Marking a major milestone in the preparation of ESA’s Biomass satellite for its scheduled 29 April liftoff, experts have completed the critical and hazardous process of fuelling the satellite.
Marking another step towards new insights into Earth’s forests and their role in the carbon cycle, ESA’s groundbreaking Biomass satellite has arrived at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, to be prepared for liftoff on a Vega-C rocket at …
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