Watch Europe’s Vega-C rocket return to flight after two years

A European Vega-C rocket will launch tomorrow carrying the Sentinel-1C mission into orbit, in the first return to flight for the rocket since it failed in 2022. The European Space Agency (ESA) is launching this Earth-monitoring satellite from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, and you can watch along as the event is livestreamed.

The launch is scheduled for 4:20 p.m. ET (1:20 p.m. PT) on Wednesday, December 4, with coverage beginning at 4 p.m. ET (1 p.m. PT). You can watch on ESA Web TV, using the video embedded below:

Sentinel-1C is the third Earth-observation satellite launched as part of the the Copernicus program, using radar for day and night imagery across the land mass and oceans of the world. The data is used for projects in environmental management, disaster response and climate change research, with previous satellites Sentinel-1A launched in 2014 and Sentinel-1B launched in 2016.

The launch will be an important test for the Vega-C rocket on the international stage. The rocket was debuted in July 2022, when it successfully carried a bevvy of satellites into orbit and hopes were high that it could replace Europe’s aging Vega rocket.

However, the second flight of the Vega-C in December 2022 failed, with both the rocket and its satellite payloads lost, in an unfortunate step back for the European space program. Subsequent investigation found that the problem was a faulty nozzle on the second stage which had a manufacturing defect.

Since then the rocket has been grounded, but as engineers have redesigned the nozzle and performed two firing tests this year, ESA has declared that the rocket is now ready for another flight. At 35 meters tall and with a weight of 210 tonnes, the Vega-C is smaller than Europe’s other new rocket, the Ariane 6, but Europe has expressed its desire for its own launch capabilities rather than relying on U.S.-based companies such as SpaceX.

“This is an important step for Europe’s independent access to space, or, let’s say, reestablishment of this independent access to space,” said Toni Tolker-Nielsen, ESA’s Director of Space Transportation at a briefing. “It is a very important step for Europe that we can return the Vega C to flight.”