A carbon dioxide-mapping satellite tv for pc and 4 Earth-observation spacecraft are scheduled to launch tonight (July 25) from South America, and you’ll watch the motion reside.
A Vega C rocket, operated by the French firm Arianespace, is scheduled to elevate off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana tonight at 10:03 p.m. EDT (11:03 p.m. native time in Kourou; 0203 GMT on July 26).
You possibly can watch reside right here at Area.com within the window above, courtesy of Arianespace, or directly via the company. Protection will start at 9:40 p.m. EDT (0140 GMT on July 26).
The four-stage, 115-foot-tall (35 meters) Vega C is carrying 5 satellites on this mission, which Arianespace calls VV27.
One is MicroCarb, a mission led by the French area company CNES. This 400-pound (180-kilogram) satellite tv for pc “is designed to map sources and sinks of carbon dioxide (CO2) — a very powerful greenhouse gas — on a world scale,” CNES officers wrote in a mission description.
MicroCarb will be capable to decide CO2 concentrations with a precision of 1 half per million. The satellite will function in sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 404 miles (650 kilometers), for a minimum of 5 years, if all goes to plan.
The opposite 4 satellites will make up CNES’ CO3D (“Constellation Optique en 3D”) Earth-observing constellation. Every spacecraft within the quartet weighs about 550 kilos (250 kg) and can function in sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 312 miles (502 km) for a minimum of six years, based on CNES.
The satellites, which had been constructed by Airbus, “have a singular optical instrument with a spatial decision of roughly 50 cm [20 inches] within the purple, inexperienced and blue seen bands and within the near-infrared,” CNES wrote in a mission description. “After processing on the bottom, their information will yield 3D maps of all of Earth’s land surfaces between -60 diploma and +70 diploma latitudes.”
The CO3D satellites are scheduled to be deployed round 57 minutes after liftoff tonight, and MicroCarb will observe go well with 44 minutes later.
VV27 would be the fifth launch general for the Vega C, and the third since an anomaly within the rocket’s second stage brought on a mission failure in December 2022.
The newest two flights have been profitable: The Vega C lofted the Sentinel-1C Earth-observation satellite and Biomass forest-monitoring spacecraft, each of them European Space Agency missions, in December 2024 and April 2025, respectively.