Europe's smaller launcher for satellites and demonstrators.
Vega complements Europe's launcher range for payloads lighter than those carried by Ariane. Developed with a major Italian industrial role, the family launches from Kourou without crews.
Its inaugural flight in 2012 places several satellites in orbit, including LARES for relativity measurements. Carrying small satellites lets several teams share the same launch mission.
In 2015, Vega launches IXV for an atmospheric reentry experiment. This is a suborbital mission: the vehicle returns from its test trajectory without completing a full revolution around Earth.
Selected representative missions; crew names belong to the flight shown.
LARES, ALMASat-1 and seven CubeSats ride on the inaugural flight.
IXV tests controlled reentry and is recovered from the Pacific, without a pilot.
Dates follow the days reported by the source agencies, generally in local time; the UTC day can differ. Crews belong to the selected missions, not every flight in the family.
It illustrates the value of matching a launch vehicle to the payload and the orbit that scientists need.
First flight or first test of the family, including unsuccessful or suborbital attempts.
