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February 8th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda PARIS (Reuters) – The Vega rocket will blast off from French Guiana on Monday, an inaugural flight aimed at giving Europe a vehicle for scientific satellite missions, the first new rocket Europe has developed since the mid-1990s.
The lift-off is scheduled for 1000 GMT from the European Space Agency‘s (ESA) launch centre in Kourou, French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America.
Aboard is a payload of nine scientific satellites. The largest, LARES, which weighs 400 kg (880 lbs), will attempt to test the phenomenon known as frame-dragging, a contested issue of physics.
Vega aims to complement the family of rockets available for launch from Guiana: the Ariane 5 heavy-lift launcher introduced in 1996, and Soyuz, a medium-class launcher.
Soyuz first flew in the 1960s Soviet Union and traces its heritage to earlier intercontinental ballistic missiles. It began launches from Guiana last October.
Vega’s maiden launch follows years of delays and budget disputes since it was proposed in the mid-1990s. The ESA decided to back the rocket in 2003.
“The importance of Vega is linked to the need to complete the range of services that can be offered with European launchers for guaranteed access to space,” Antonio Fabrizi, director of launchers at ESA, told Reuters.
“Vega is the right tool to cover missions of earth-observation, science and technology demonstration. It is something that cannot be flown on Ariane or Soyuz.”
Fabrizi expects Vega to have the reliability of Ariane 5, which surpasses 95 percent and has not had a failure since 2002. It has had a run of 46 consecutive successful launches.
Potential competitors for Vega, notably from the United States, have had more problems.
American start-up SpaceX – brainchild of PayPal co-founder Elon Musk – has pulled resources from its Falcon 1 rocket and only one launch in 2015 is now scheduled.
Taurus XL, launched by Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp. , has suffered two failures since 2009.
ITALIAN FINANCING
In a break from previous European rocket programmes that were heavily financed by France, Vega’s development price tag of more than 1 billion euros, including inaugural flights, has been 60 percent financed by Italy.
Rome-based ELV SpA, a joint venture company between Italian rocket-propulsion manufacturer Avio and the Italian space agency ASI, is Vega’s prime contractor.
In Guiana, Vega’s launchpad is on the site of the Ariane 1 rocket put into service in 1979. Using an already cut and concreted area of jungle saved between 50 and 100 million euros.
Vega stands 30 metres (98 ft) tall and consists of three solid propellant stages and a Ukrainian-built restartable liquid propellant upper stage.
The model to be launched on Monday is capable of sending payloads of up to 1500 kg (3300 lb) to low earth orbit.
Monday’s flight will be conducted by the ESA. If successful future Vega flights will be handled by the Arianespace commercial launch consortium.
Arianespace chief executive Jean-Yves Le Gall said Vega will help the company lower costs as it will spread the Guiana launch centre’s fixed costs over three rockets.
(Reporting By Alexander Miles, Editing by Alexandria Sage)
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