Vega launcher makes first flight

Europe's new Vega rocket has launched on its first flight. The 30m-tall vehicle has been designed to put small scientific and government satellites in orbit. Vega is carrying a total of nine spacecraft, including a fundamental physics experiment to test aspects of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Controllers at the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana ignited the rocket at 07:00 local time (10:00 GMT). Member states of the European Space Agency (Esa), together with their industries, are investing more than a billion euros in the introduction of Vega. The vehicle is intended to guarantee access to space for an increasingly important class of satellite weighing less than 2.5 tonnes. At the moment, these smaller spacecraft, which include many Earth observation satellites, tend to ride converted Russian nuclear missiles to get into orbit. European operators can sometimes wait many months to get a launch slot on these ICBMs, however. Vega should allow them to have more control over the schedules of their space projects. It also means that the value of what it is an immensely high-tech enterprise will return to the European economy, not to foreign industry. Vega is a four-stage rocket. Its first three segments burn a solid fuel. Its fourth and final stage uses liquid propellants and can be stopped and restarted several times to get a spacecraft into just the right orbit. The stage can also bring itself out of the sky - something deemed very important these days given the rising concern over space debris. Permission to launch was given during a flight readiness review held at the weekend. Monday's mission is intended to qualify the overall Vega system, including the rocket vehicle itself and all its ground infrastructure and operations systems. Lares The Lares sphere is one of nine satellites riding on Vega The rocket is packed with sensors which will transmit data to controllers in real-time. It is because of the troubled history of rocket introductions that all of the payloads on Monday's mission are getting a free ride. The largest satellite, weighing some 400kg, is the Lares (Laser Relativity Satellite) spacecraft. Developed by the Italian space agency (Asi), this payload looks akin to a hi-tech "disco ball". The 37cm-diameter tungsten sphere features 92 reflectors on its surface that will be used to make very precise laser ranging measurements from Earth. Lares' purpose is to study one consequence of general relativity known as "frame-dragging". This phenomenon, also known as the Lense-Thirring effect, describes how the Earth twists local space-time around with it as it rotates. The other eight satellites riding on Vega are all very much smaller than Lares - most of them weighing just a kilo or so. These university-produced payloads include the first ever spacecraft from Poland, Romania and Hungary.