Vega-C: launching Smile into space

ESA’s Vega-C succeeds Vega, to deliver more performance, greater payload volume and better competitiveness. Operating from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, this rocket extends Europe’s autonomy in space by offering new mission possibilities, including return-to-Earth operations with ESA's reusable Space Rider spacecraft. Vega-C features major enhancements including two new solid propulsion stages, an higher-rated upper stage, new fairing, and new ground infrastructure.

Vega-C is a single-body rocket nearly 35 m high with that weighs 210 tonnes on the launch pad. Vega-C can launch 2.3 tonnes to a Sun-synchronous orbit, 3.3 tonnes to low Earth orbit and 2.5 tonnes to polar orbits. Using a new range of payload carriers, Vega-C can accommodate a mix of cargo shapes and sizes, ranging from CubeSats to a large single payload.

Vega-C is based on the Vega launch vehicle. As with Vega, its main elements are three solid-propellant stages, an upper stage powered by a reignitable liquid-propellant engine and a payload fairing.

In spring 2026, Vega-C will launch the Smile (Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) into space. Smile is a joint mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

[Image description: Towards the right of the infographic is an artist impression of a Vega-C rocket. The five main parts of the rocket are indicated with different colours, with a pop-out box of the same colour explaining that part in more detail. At the top left of the graphic, we see the Smile spacecraft inside the Vega-C fairing.]