Vega-C | Sentinel-3C & FLEX
Avio S.p.A launches Vega-C carrying Sentinel-3C & FLEX from Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV), Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana at 2026-09-15 01:21:07Z. That T-0 is confirmed to the second. The vehicle is go for launch.
COUNTDOWN
FLIGHT PLAN
The window is instantaneous: the vehicle flies at T-0 or stands down to the next opportunity. Current T-0 confirmed by official or reliable sources.
FIELD KIT / OPTICS
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Celestron FirstScope 76 mm Tabletop Telescope
76 mm of aperture on a tabletop mount with nothing to align: put it on a step, point it, look. The entry point of the whole category — it comes with no finder, which is the trade — and enough scope to show lunar craters and Jupiter's four bright moons.
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Beginner Dobsonians
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Beginner refractors
Lighter and quicker to set up than a Dobsonian, weaker on faint deep-sky objects. Worth browsing if the scope has to live in a cupboard and come out on a whim.
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MISSION BRIEF
Sentinel-3C is the third satellite in the Sentinel-3 constellation, which provides high-accuracy optical, radar and altimetry data for marine and land services. The Fluorescence Explorer (FLEX) satellite is a part of ESA's Earth Explorer program. The satellite will map vegetation fluorescence to quantify photosynthetic activity.
SOURCE: LAUNCH LIBRARY 2 // THE SPACE DEVS
LAUNCH CORRIDOR
- Due east
- The lowest orbit inclination a direct launch from here can reach — 5.2°, which is this pad’s own latitude. It also collects the most free speed from Earth’s rotation.
- Due south
- The polar and sun-synchronous corridor: 90° inclination, passing over both poles. It gets no help from Earth’s spin, which is why it costs more payload.
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. Surface wind is blowing from 95°, at 13 km/h, shown as the cyan arrow at the pad.
LAUNCH SITE
Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV)
Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana, French Guiana
OBSERVED 2026-08-28 00:45:00Z // OPEN-METEO (CC BY 4.0) // GENERAL CONDITIONS, NOT LAUNCH CRITERIA
Minimum direct inclination 5.2°. From 5.2° north of the equator, a direct ascent cannot enter an orbit inclined less than 5.2°, because an orbit of inclination i never passes over latitudes beyond ±i. Reaching an equatorial plane — what a geostationary transfer ultimately needs — therefore costs a plane change of 5.2° somewhere in the flight, while inclinations of 5.2° and above are available straight off the pad. The ground here is carried eastward at about 463 m/s (465 m/s at the equator, falling with the cosine of latitude), and a due-east launch keeps that head start.
DATUM WGS-84 // EQUIRECTANGULAR PROJECTION // ORBIT FIGURES DERIVED FROM THE PUBLISHED LATITUDE
PAD CONDITIONS
SURFACE WIND @ 10 M
13km/h
Blowing from the east, bearing 95 degrees
GUSTING
26km/h
Clear sky
SOURCE: OPEN-METEO CC BY 4.0
The observed block is general weather for the coordinates of Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV), not launch-commit criteria. Those are written per mission by the operator and the range, cover conditions this forecast does not carry at all (electric fields, cloud layers aloft, winds through the vehicle’s own load limits), and are published only by the operator. Wind is a common reason countdowns stop for weather — that is general context, not a rule about this flight, and no number in this block is a threshold. Nothing here is a go or no-go call, and no operator figure was published for this attempt.
COMMON QUESTIONS
What time does Vega-C · Sentinel-3C & FLEX launch?
Avio S.p.A is targeting 2026-09-15 01:21:07Z for Vega-C | Sentinel-3C & FLEX. That T-0 is confirmed to the second. The window is instantaneous: the vehicle flies at T-0 or stands down to the next opportunity.
Where can I watch Vega-C · Sentinel-3C & FLEX launch?
No official webcast has been published for Vega-C | Sentinel-3C & FLEX yet. When Avio S.p.A posts a feed it is linked from this page, and the live countdown here runs against the published T-0 in the meantime.
What is Vega-C · Sentinel-3C & FLEX carrying?
Sentinel-3C is the third satellite in the Sentinel-3 constellation, which provides high-accuracy optical, radar and altimetry data for marine and land services. The Fluorescence Explorer (FLEX) satellite is a part of ESA's Earth Explorer program. The satellite will map vegetation fluorescence to quantify photosynthetic activity.
Where does Vega-C · Sentinel-3C & FLEX launch from?
Vega-C | Sentinel-3C & FLEX lifts off from Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV), Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana, French Guiana. The pad sits at 5.2360, -52.7750.