{"id":268089,"date":"2026-01-28T09:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T09:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/268089\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T09:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T09:33:15","slug":"airbus-selects-vega-c-to-launch-first-pleiades-neo-next-satellite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/268089\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbus Selects Vega C to Launch First Pl\u00e9iades Neo Next Satellite"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Airbus-Selects-Vega-C-to-Launch-First-Pleiades-Neo-Next-Satellite.webp.webp\" alt=\"Airbus has selected Avio\u2019s Vega C rocket to launch its first Pl\u00e9iades Neo Next Earth observation satellite in early 2028.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5987 lazyload\"  data- style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 800px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 800\/500;\"\/>Credit: Airbus<\/p>\n<p>Airbus has tapped Avio to launch its first Pl\u00e9iades Neo Next Earth observation satellite aboard a Vega C rocket. The mission is expected to launch in early 2028.<\/p>\n<p>The Airbus Defence and Space-operated Pl\u00e9iades Neo Next programme is the successor to the Pl\u00e9iades Neo constellation, which provides very high-resolution optical Earth observation data to governmental and commercial customers. According to Airbus, the Pl\u00e9iades Neo Next satellites will offer native resolution in the 20-cm class, a significant improvement over the 30-cm capability of the current Pl\u00e9iades Neo satellites. The new constellation is also expected to offer increased revisit rates and feature an upgraded ground segment capable of handling a higher volume of imagery requests.<\/p>\n<p>On 27 January, Airbus announced that it had awarded a contract to Avio to launch the first Pl\u00e9iades Neo Next satellite aboard a Vega C rocket from the Guiana Space Centre. Airbus\u2019s selection of Vega C reflects renewed confidence in the rocket\u2019s reliability following its return to service in October 2023. That return to flight followed a December 2022 failure that resulted in the loss of two Airbus Pl\u00e9iades Neo Earth observation satellites.<\/p>\n<p>The announcement of the Pl\u00e9iades Neo Next launch contract appears to align with a 19 December Avio announcement that referenced two launch contracts unnamed customers valued at over \u20ac100 million. That press release described one of the customer payloads as an Earth observation satellite with a payload mass of 1,000 kilograms, a planned 2028 launch, and placement into an approximately 500-kilometre sun-synchronous orbit. All of this is consistent with a Pl\u00e9iades Neo Next mission.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of the initial announcement, Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo presented the contracts as proof of Vega C\u2019s strength in both the European and export launch markets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAvio is proud to have signed these two contracts as a result of commercial activities in Europe and with export customers carried out by its new commercial team under the new responsibilities as Vega C launch service provider,\u201d said Ranzo. \u201cThis win undoubtedly demonstrates Vega C\u2019s competitiveness in both the European and export markets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>        Keep European Spaceflight Independent<\/p>\n<p>Your donation will help European Spaceflight to continue digging into the stories others miss. Every euro keeps our reporting alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Airbus Airbus has tapped Avio to launch its first Pl\u00e9iades Neo Next Earth observation satellite aboard a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[125,58895,61,60,82,247,89544],"class_list":{"0":"post-268089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-airbus","9":"tag-avio","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-vega-c"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}