OptSat 3000 & VENµS (VENUS)

Mission

OptSat 3000 & VENµS (VENUS)

Type: Earth Science

OptSat 3000 is an Earth imaging satellite built by Israel Aerospace Industries for the Italian military. It will be placed in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 600km. It will have a mission life of more than six years. Launched along with it is VENµS, Vegetation and Environment monitoring on a New Micro-Satellite. This is a near polar sun-synchronous orbit microsatellite jointly built by the Israeli Space Agency and CNES. Besides the scientific mission of terrestrial environment monitoring, the satellite is also tasked with verification and validation of the Hall Effect thruster in space.

Location

Ariane Launch Area 1

Kourou, French Guiana

151 rockets have launched from Kourou, French Guiana.

Rocket

Vega

Length: 29.9 meters
Diameter: 3.025 meters
First Launch: February 13, 2012

Vega is the smallest lifter in the current Arianespace family.

The Vega rocket has been launched a total of 17 times with 15 successful and 2 failed launches.

Agency

Arianespace

Type: Commercial
Abbreviation: ASA
Administration: CEO: Stéphane Israël
Founded: 1980
Launchers: Ariane 5 | Vega

Country: FRA

Arianespace SA is a multinational company founded in 1980 as the world’s first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the production, operation, and marketing of the Ariane programme. Their vehicles launch exclusively from French Guiana in South America.