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This morning, Europe’s first Vega rocket lifted off from the European Space Agency launch center in Kourou, French Guiana. Traveling with nine scientific satellites on board, this launch serves as an inaugural flight aimed at giving Europe a vehicle for scientific satellite missions. (Read More)

Designed to carry up to nine objects totaling less than 2.5 metric tons (“tonnes,” for those in the know) into orbit, the four-stage vehicle stands 30 meters tall and weighs in at just under 140 metric tons when fully loaded. The rocket aims to solve a key — if slightly humdrum — problem: at present, European researchers send their instrumentation into space on retrofitted Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). 

Engadget