Vega-C | Biomass

Mission Details

Biomass is an European Space Agency mission designed to measure the density of carbon stored in the world's forests. The spacecraft, built by Airbus Defence and Space, features the first civilian P-band synthetic aperture radar as well as a 12m-diameter deployable reflector from L3Harris made of over 900 km of gold-coated molybdenum 25µm wire. With a minimum operational lifetime of 5 years in its 666km 6am/6pm sun-synchronous orbit, the global coverage achieved every 9 months allows to precisely monitor the evolution of forests over time.

Launch Service Provider

Arianespace (ASA)

Rocket Information

• Configuration: Vega-C
• Manufacturer: Avio S.p.A
• Payload Capacity to LEO: 3300 kg
• Height: 35 meters
• Diameter: 3 meters

Launch Pad

Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV)

Updates

• Tue, 29 Apr 2025 10:45:00 GMT

  Spacecraft confirmed operational.

  by Cosmic_Penguin

• Tue, 29 Apr 2025 10:25:00 GMT

  Biomass deployed.

  by hitura-nobad

• Tue, 29 Apr 2025 09:16:00 GMT

  Liftoff

  by hitura-nobad

• Tue, 29 Apr 2025 09:04:00 GMT

  Tweaked T-0.

  by Cosmic_Penguin

• Tue, 29 Apr 2025 08:53:00 GMT

  Official Webcast by arianespace has started

  by LL2

• Tue, 25 Mar 2025 09:48:00 GMT

  GO for launch.

  by Cosmic_Penguin

• Mon, 03 Feb 2025 09:14:00 GMT

  NET early April.

  by Cosmic_Penguin

• Wed, 27 Mar 2024 10:48:39 GMT

  Targeting March 2025

  by Nosu

• Tue, 05 Dec 2023 14:40:10 GMT

  Launcher swapped with one for Sentinel-2C in summer 2023.

  by Cosmic_Penguin

• Mon, 02 Oct 2023 11:26:27 GMT

  NET Q2 2024.

  by Cosmic_Penguin

• Mon, 10 Jul 2023 13:56:19 GMT

  NET April 2024

  by Cosmic_Penguin

• Mon, 07 Nov 2022 10:53:42 GMT

  NET 2024

  by Nosu

• Mon, 07 Nov 2022 10:53:41 GMT

  NET 2024

  by Nosu