Vega History
The first launcher
The project of the small launcher Vega, led by Italy, began in the 1990s thanks to Avio, which was seeking new growth opportunities in the space sector. The driving force behind the initiative came from the awareness of the skills acquired and consolidated over previous decades in the fields of design and manufacturing.
However, the project only came to fruition at the beginning of the new millennium, when agreements were signed for program management within the ESA framework.
THE FIRST LIFTOFF
the story begins
The qualification launch of the Vega launcher, successfully carried out on February 13, 2012, from the Kourou space base with the geodetic satellite LARES 1 from ASI on board, marked the culmination of a ten-year effort. The event took place exactly one hundred years after the founding of BPD.
Over the course of that decade, Avio—building on its prior experience in solid propulsion—developed not only technical and technological expertise in various fields, from liquid propulsion to structures, electronics, and guidance and control systems, but also management and governance capabilities needed to coordinate and lead partners from the different European countries involved in the project.
The company was thus transformed: from a mere component supplier into a systems integrator, capable of developing an entire launcher.
With the qualification of the Vega launcher, Italy became the second country in Europe, after France, to effectively acquire the ability to design and manage a complex system such as a space launcher. It thereby joined the small group of nations worldwide capable of boasting this expertise, alongside the United States, Russia, China, Japan, and India.
Avio, as the project’s prime contractor, also entered an exclusive group of companies with the systemic capabilities required to design and manage an entire space launcher — an achievement claimed by fewer than ten organizations worldwide.
Launch Timeline
Vega's Voyages
In the twelve years since its first launch, Vega has carried out no fewer than twenty-two missions (including the qualification flight), placing about 90 satellites into orbit, varying in mass, function, mission, and nationality.
Here is the timeline showcasing its main achievements:
next level
make room for the future
With the launch of Sentinel-2C from the European Copernicus program, carried out on September 5, 2024, Vega bid farewell to space with its twenty-second and final mission, passing the baton to its successor, Vega C, which had already been successfully qualified with the launch on July 13, 2022 — just over ten years after its predecessor’s qualification flight.
