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Like all the other ESA launchers, Vega will be launched from the Kourou Space Centre in French Guiana. The Kourou spaceport plays a fundamental role in Europe's space programmes. Selected by the French government as the launching facility for their satellites in 1964, in 1975 it was made available to ESA and since then the European Agency has funded the upgrade of existing structures and the construction of new ones. Kourou is located at a latitude of 5°3', about 500 km north of the equator. Thanks to its proximity to the equator, the rockets lifting off from the facility can exploit the energy generated by the earth's rotation: an additional thrust that makes for appreciable energy savings. Once assembled, with its constituent stages Zefiro 23, Zefiro 9 and AVUM, plus its integration equipment, but with no fuel in its tanks, the Vega launcher was moved from the Colleferro plant (Roma), where Elv has its operational facility, to the Kourou spaceport between June and July 2008. This phase was a landmark in the Vega development programme, in that it marked the start of the preliminary testing campaign in preparation for the first lift-off. |
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