Antonio Fabrizi, ESA Director of Launchers, Jean-Yves Le Gall, Chief Executive Officer of Arianespace and Francesco De Pasquale, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ELV SpA, signed the contracts during a ceremony in Paris, France.
Simultaneously, Arianespace and Vega prime contractor ELV signed the VERTA framework contract, covering the five Vega launchers to be delivered after the qualification flight. The framework contract provides for ELV to deliver five Vega launchers to
Arianespace. Vega is a small launch vehicle with three solid-propulsion stages, and a fourth stage with a reignitable liquid rocket engine. Arianespace will start operation of the new Vega launch system in 2011,
alongside the Ariane 5 heavy launcher and the Soyuz medium launcher. These three vehicles comprise the European launcher family operated by Arianespace at the Guiana Space Center, Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. Used primarily to orbit scientific and Earth observation satellites, Vega offers
payload capacity of 1,500 kg into polar orbit at 700 km altitude.
The Vega launcher is perfectly suited to the launch of small satellites into low Earth orbit or Sun-synchronous orbit. Vega aims to quickly establish itself as the best launcher in its class. ELV, based in Colleferro, Italy, is the industrial prime contractor for the Vega program, and is owned 70 percent by Avio and 30 percent by the Italian space agency ASI. Vega is a European Space Agency program, jointly financed by Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden.