An Italian-made rocket faces a big test on Thursday night

Enlarge / This image shows the Zefiro-23 second stage being installed onto the P80 first stage at the Vega Launch Site in February, in Kourou, French Guiana. (credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace)

Nearly a year has gone by since an Italian-made Vega rocket launched a 1.2-ton satellite from French Guiana only to subsequently fail at reaching orbit. Now, the Vega rocket is set for its return-to-flight mission on Thursday night at 9:51pm ET (01:51 UTC Friday). It will be broadcast on ESA Web TV.

This is an important mission for more than just getting the Vega rocket back on track. It also is the first launch of a rocket from the European spaceport in French Guiana since February, after which the facility closed down due to COVID-19 precautions.

Additionally, with this mission, the small Vega booster seeks to prove its bona fides as a booster capable of flying rideshare missions. On this launch, the rocket will debut the "Small Spacecraft Mission Service" dispenser to deploy payloads of varying sizes into multiple orbits.

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