Family: Vega
Vega-C
Launch statistics
- 7
- Launches (as of July 27, 2026)
- 1
- Successes
- 0
- Failures
- 100.0 %
- Success rate
Vega C, or "Vega Consolidation", is a European expendable medium-lift launch vehicle developed and produced by the Italian company Avio. It is an evolution of the original Vega launcher, designed to offer greater launch performance and flexibility. Approved for development by the European Space Agency in December 2014, it was designed to accommodate larger institutional payloads and compete effectively in the commercial launch market. Initially marketed and operated by Arianespace, in August 2024 ESA decided to empower Avio to commercialise it directly. Like its predecessor it is a single-body launcher with no strap-on boosters, using three solid stages and one liquid stage. It stands 34.8 m tall and 3.4 m in diameter, has a mass of 210,000 kg and flies from the ELV pad at the Guiana Space Centre. Its reference mission places a 2300 kg spacecraft into a 700 km polar orbit, an 800 kg or 60% increase over the original Vega. The differences from the original Vega are substantial. The first stage was replaced by the more powerful P120C, whose "C" refers to a common design that also allows it to serve as an Ariane 6 booster, sharing development costs. The second stage carries the upgraded Zefiro 40; the third remains the Zefiro 9, and the fourth, the AVUM+, is largely unchanged apart from the "+" reflecting its increased propellant capacity. The fairing was also redesigned: 3.3 m in diameter and over 9 m tall, offering nearly double the payload volume of the original Vega's. The programme is multi-national, with contributions from Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine.
History
Approval and debut
Vega C development was approved by ESA in December 2014 with the aim of accommodating larger institutional payloads and competing better commercially without raising costs. Its maiden flight on 13 July 2022 successfully delivered the LARES 2 geodetic satellite to medium Earth orbit along with six other small university and research satellites.
The VV22 failure and return to flight
The second launch, on 21 December 2022, ended in failure: a loss of pressure in the Zefiro 40 second stage destroyed the two Pléiades Neo Earth-imaging satellites. The investigation blamed nozzle erosion, which required a redesign of the motor nozzle; the next launch slipped to late 2024. Return to flight came on 5 December 2024 with Sentinel-1C, the third satellite of the Sentinel-1 series,.
Cadence restored
Since then the rocket has strung together successes: BIOMASS on 29 April 2025, the CO3D constellation together with the MicroCarb microsatellite on 26 July 2025, South Korea's KOMPSAT-7 on 1 December 2025 and, on 19 May 2026, the joint Chinese-European SMILE mission to a highly elliptical orbit, the first launch operated by Avio without Arianespace. The cumulative record stands at 7 launches with 6 successes and 1 failure.
The family's future
A mid-life upgrade, Vega C+, is planned with the enlarged P160C first stage: one metre longer and carrying an additional 14 t of propellant, it will enable an extra 200 kg of payload. Its first flight is not expected before 2028, when it is planned to launch ESA's reusable Space Rider vehicle. Vega E will follow, replacing the Zefiro 9 and AVUM+ stages with a single upper stage burning liquid oxygen and liquid methane using the M10 engine, for an expected 25% capacity improvement; further out, Vega Next is expected after 2032 with a new M60 engine.
Launch timeline
| Date | Launch site | Outcome | Payload |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 19, 2026, 3:52 AM | Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV) | Success | Joint mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to investigate the interaction between Earth’s protective shield – the magnetosphere – and the supersonic solar wind. |
Versions
| Vega C | Vega C+ | Vega E | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First launch | July 13, 2022 | — | — |
| Height | 34.8 m | — | — |
| Diameter | 3.4 m | — | — |
| Mass | 210,000 kg | — | — |
| Stages | 4 | 4 | 3 Best value in this row |
| Reusable | No | No | No |
Images