You're reading: New European Vega rocket with Ukrainian engine successfully puts three foreign satellites into orbit

The new European light-class Vega launcher, equipped with a Ukrainian-made RD-868P cruise engine for the fourth stage of the rocket, successfully placed in orbit three small foreign satellites following the new rocket's second launch, the press service of the State Space Agency of Ukraine (SSAU) has reported.

“The second successful launch of the European Vega rocket carrying Europe’s Proba-V, Vietnam’s VNREDSat-1 and Estonia’s ESTCube-1 was made on May 7 at 0506 Kyiv time from Kourou in French Guiana,” reads the statement.

“The successful placement of spacecraft in Earth orbit by the Vega launch vehicle was achieved due to the efficient work of the cruise engine of the fourth stage of the rocket, the RD-868P, which was designed in Ukraine by Pivdenne Design Bureau and produced by Pivdenmash [both based in Dnipropetrovsk]. There are no problems with the work of the cruise engine of the fourth stage of the launcher,” the agency said.

According to the statement, the second successful launch of the new Vega rocket, which marked the beginning of its commercial operation, “confirmed the high professionalism of Ukrainian rocket scientists, and demonstrated the high level of national scientific and technological development and the competitiveness of Ukrainian-produced rocket and space technology in the international space market.”

A contract to design and supply a rocket motor for the new European Vega launch vehicle was signed by Pivdenne Design Bureau, Pivdenmash and Italian Avio S.p.A. in February 2004.

Italy, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland are taking part in the Vega program. Italy, via the Italian Space Agency, finances 65 percent of the program.

The Vega light rocket is designed to put satellites of up to 1,200 kilograms into solar synchronous orbits of 1,200 kilometers, or satellites of up to 1,500 kilograms into polar orbits of 700 kilometers. The rocket has three solid fuel stages and one liquid fuel stage. It is 30 meters tall and has a lanuch weight of 130 tonnes.

In April 2012, Pivdenne Design Bureau and Pivdenmash signed a three-year contract with Italy’s Avio S.p.A. on the supply of the first five serial rocket engines for the fourth stage of the Vega launch vehicle.