29/04/2021 (Agence Europe) – Europe’s small Vega launcher returned victoriously on Wednesday 28 April after a successful launch into orbit, some 6 months after its last failure (see EUROPE 12626/33). “I would like to congratulate everyone involved at Arianespace, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Avio for successfully returning Vega to flight”, said Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël in a statement. The launcher placed the Pleiades Neo 3 satellite into orbit, the first of four satellites in an advanced constellation for very high resolution Earth observations. The launcher has also enabled the deployment of several small satellites through its innovative SSMS (Small Spacecraft Mission Service) carpooling service: an observation microsatellite for the Norwegian space agency, Norsat-3, and four cubesats, for the operators Eutelsat, NanoAvionics/Aurora Insight and Spire. (PH)