Italy’s PRISMA Earth observation satellite launched aboard Arianespace’s Vega rocket Thursday. Vega lifted off from its launch pad at the Centre Spatial Guyanais in Kourou, French Guiana, at 22:50:35 local time (01:50 UTC on Friday).
PRISMA, or Precursore Iperspettrale della Missione Applicativa, is a small hyperspectral imaging satellite that has been constructed by OHB Italia and will be operated by the Italian Space Agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI). The satellite, whose name translates into English as “hyperspectral precursor of the application mission”, is intended to demonstrate the small satellite platform and its imaging payload, while also performing imaging that is useful in its own right.
PRISMA’s images will help scientists to study the environment and aid with the monitoring of land use, natural resources, water pollution, soil mixtures, and the carbon cycle.
The fourth stage motor of Vega – AVUM features a restartable RD-843 engine, developed by the Ukrainian Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and Yuzhmash production plant from engines originally designed to power the third stage of the Soviet (later Russian) R-36 missile. Burning unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide, the AVUM is used to ensure Vega’s payload is placed into a precise target orbit.
Thursday’s launch was the first of four Vega missions planned this year. The next launch is due in a month’s time with the Falcon Eye 1 satellite aboard, followed by another flight in August that will carry a cluster of small satellites. Sometime after that launch, another Vega will deploy Falcon Eye 2. Before then, Arianespace’s next launch will be on 4 April, when a Soyuz rocket will carry four O3b communications satellites into orbit.
