Avio Launches Second Successful Vega C Flight of 2026

Avio has completed its second successful Vega C flight of 2026, deploying the Sentinel-3C and FLEX missions.Italian launch services provider Avio has successfully completed its second Vega-C flight of 2026, deploying the European Commission’s third Sentinel-3 Earth observation satellite and ESA’s FLEX mission. The Vega-C rocket lifted off from the Guiana Space Centre at 01:21 UTC on 15 September. Following two burns of the rocket’s AVUM+ upper stage, Sentinel-3C was deployed approximately one hour into the mission. The stage then performed two further burns before deploying ESA’s FLEX spacecraft 56 minutes later. The successful mission marked Avio’s second Vega C flight since the Italian company assumed launch service and operational responsibilities following its split from Arianespace.

Source: europeanspaceflight.com