Vega-C | PLATiNO 2
Avio S.p.A is targeting November 2027 for Vega-C carrying PLATiNO-2 from Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV), Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana. Launch Library files only the month, so the date is a placeholder. The date is still provisional and can move.
COUNTDOWN
FLIGHT PLAN
There's no launch window filed yet. Current date is a placeholder or rough estimation based on unreliable or interpreted sources.
FIELD KIT / OPTICS
Where to start if you want a telescope for the back garden.
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Celestron Travel Scope 70 mm Refractor
A 70 mm scope on a light tripod that packs into its own backpack, so it's easy to take out. It shows craters on the Moon, Jupiter's four bright moons and the shape of Saturn's rings. The tripod is the weak part, so expect to steady it.
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Beginner Dobsonians
A big mirror on a simple rocker mount, with no motors to go wrong. This is a search, not one pick. Compare 130 mm and 150 mm models before you buy.
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Beginner refractors
Lighter and quicker to set up than a Dobsonian, but weaker on faint galaxies and nebulae. Worth a look if the scope has to live in a cupboard.
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MISSION BRIEF
PLATiNO-2 is an Earth observation satellite developed for the Italian Space Agency (ASI), making use of the PLATiNO minisatellite platform - a versatile and modular small satellite system - to support a variety of space missions for Earth observation, telecommunications, and scientific research. The platform offers a scalable and cost-effective solution for payload integration in support of diverse mission requirements and orbital configurations, with a focus on high performance, flexibility, and reliability, for both governmental and commercial applications. The PLATiNO-2 mission carries a Thermal Infrared (TIR) payload, validating PLATiNO multi-applicability feature. Developed by Leonardo and SITAEL, PLATiNO-2 TIR will acquire images that will be used to provide valuable services for territories control and protection such as monitoring waters, glaciers, pollutants, state of crops and vegetation, energy consumption in urban areas. PLATiNO-2 is also equipped with the magnetically shielded HT 100, an improved version of SITAEL electric thruster, making PLATiNO-2 one of the first missions in the world to observe the Earth in the Thermal Infrared from a very low orbit – less than 400 km – and thus significantly improving the resolution of the acquired images. The satellite also carries NASA’s Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) instrument, which will study how different types of particulate matter air pollution affect our health.
SOURCE: LAUNCH LIBRARY 2 // THE SPACE DEVS
LAUNCH CORRIDOR
- Due east
- The lowest inclination a direct launch from here can reach is 5.2°. That’s this pad’s own latitude. Flying east also gets the most free speed from Earth’s rotation.
- Due south
- The polar corridor, at 90° inclination, passes over both poles. It gets no help from Earth’s spin, so the same rocket can carry less.
Drag the globe to turn it. The shading is the real terminator, and it moves.
A globe of the Earth centred on Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV) at latitude 5.24 degrees north, longitude 52.77 degrees west. Two curved lines leave the pad. The solid gold line runs due east and marks the lowest orbital inclination a direct launch from this site can reach, 5.2 degrees, equal to the pad’s latitude of 5.2 degrees. The dashed cyan line runs due south and marks the polar corridor at 90 degrees inclination. The darkened part of the globe is the night side. The surface wind is from 86° at 12 km/h. That's the cyan arrow at the pad.
LAUNCH SITE
Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV)
Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana
OBSERVED 2026-11-11 10:15:00Z // OPEN-METEO (CC BY 4.0) // GENERAL CONDITIONS, NOT LAUNCH CRITERIA
Minimum direct inclination 5.2°. This pad is 5.2° north of the equator, so a direct launch can't reach an orbit inclined less than 5.2°. An orbit of inclination i never passes over latitudes beyond ±i. Getting to an equatorial orbit, which geostationary satellites need, takes a 5.2° plane change at some point in the flight. Inclinations of 5.2° and up are reachable straight off the pad. The ground here moves east at about 463 m/s with Earth's spin. That's 465 m/s at the equator, falling with the cosine of latitude. A launch due east keeps that head start.
DATUM WGS-84 // EQUIRECTANGULAR PROJECTION // ORBIT FIGURES DERIVED FROM THE PUBLISHED LATITUDE
Open this pad in a mapPAD CONDITIONS
SURFACE WIND @ 10 M
12km/h
Blowing from the east, bearing 86 degrees
GUSTING
22km/h
Clear sky
SOURCE: OPEN-METEO CC BY 4.0
The observed figures are general weather at the coordinates of Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV). They aren’t the launch rules. The operator and the range write those for each mission, and they cover things this forecast doesn’t carry, like electric fields, cloud layers higher up and winds along the rocket’s path. Only the operator publishes them. Wind often stops a countdown, but no number here is a limit for this flight. Nothing here is a go or no-go call. No operator figure was published for this attempt.