Vega launcher makes first flight

[Craig]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16956324

Europe's new Vega rocket has completed a flawless first flight.

Controllers at the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana ignited the rocket at 07:00 local time (10:00 GMT), and it completed its mission 70 minutes later.

The 30m-tall vehicle has been designed to put small scientific and government satellites in orbit.

For its first outing, Vega carried nine payloads into space, including a physics experiment to test Einstein's theory of general relativity.

It's not all about NASA.

[Perkil8r]

It certainly seems like a positive step. It's only a shame we can't launch from UK or even mainland Europe. I forget the exact details now, but when I was at KSC in December, the guide explained about how different geographic launch points result in faster escapes to orbit or faster exit speeds depending on the rotation of the Earth and all manner of other factors. To the layman you'd have thought it wouldn't make a difference, but it does.

[Rusty Strings]

At least europe isn't now completely dependant on Nasa and the Russians.

[Doc]

At least europe isn't now completely dependant on Nasa and the Russians.

B

We are really this was only a satellite we put into space, we should be experts at this by now.

What I would like to see is a Joint mission from America, Russia, India, China, and Europe on something big like going to Mars.