Spacecraft confirmed operational.
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Historical mission record
This page records Vega-C | Biomass and its reported outcome: Launch Successful. The date above is a historical record.
Source record updated . This is a source update, not a confirmed launch time.
Check the source: Vega C Flight VV26 ↗ · Biomass ↗ · Biomass (satellite) - Wikipedia ↗
Mission status
Launch Successful
Status reported by the mission data provider.
LAUNCH SITEGuiana Space Centre, French Guiana
Mission
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.
- Launch vehicle
- Vega-C
- Mission type
- Earth Science
- Destination orbit
- Sun-Synchronous Orbit
- Launch pad
- Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV)
- Provider
- Arianespace
The vehicle
Published configuration and flight history.
Launch vehicle
Vega-C
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.
- Height
- 34.8 m
- Diameter
- 3 m
- Stages
- 4
- Recorded launches
- 6
- First flight
- 2022-07-13
Recorded timing
This is a mission record, not an upcoming calendar appointment.
Instantaneous windowPublished target
SCHEDULED MOMENT
A single scheduled moment. The schedule may change before launch.
Flight timeline
Planned sequence, not live telemetry. Times are relative to the launch target.
- T+00:00:00
Liftoff
- T+00:02:25
Stage 2 Separation
- T+00:04:31
Stage 3 Separation
- T+00:04:43
Fairing Separation
- T+00:07:10
Kick Stage Separation
- T+00:08:00
Kick Stage Burn
Show the full sequence (9 events)
- T+00:53:00
Kick Stage Burn
- T+00:57:00
Payload Separation
- T+01:46:00
Kick Stage Burn
Launch site & orbit
Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana
The mission in perspective
Launch site & orbit
Explore the launch pad, then pull back to see the shape of the destination orbit.
Understand this orbit
Coverage & sources
Links supplied by the mission data provider.
Coverage and times may change.
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