ArianeSpace and Rocket Report

  • ArianeSpace Flight VV14/PRISMA: A much better launch broadcast than last one I watched, with fewer self-congratulatory political speeches, none of the weird political ads, and a CGI render of the flight track that at least puts them on par with NASA TV; it would be nicer to have camera views of the stage separation and deployment. That’s a high polar orbit they launched into, usually you see high geosynch or low latitudes; they’re not good at explaining why, but PRISMA is an Earth mapping satellite, so it needs a continuous loop around the poles to see every inch eventually.

    English subtitling is only by translation software, though, and it’s ludicrously wrong on technical terms where you most want it; I can puzzle out enough French to figure out where the nouns are and those are usually companies or English-y scientific terms, but the German and Italian and Euro-English is hard to follow. How do these people get anything done in a tower of Babel?

  • ArsTechnica’s Rocket Report is always interesting. Note related to this launch:

    “A competitive market … The Vega rocket competes with India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, and the Vega C rocket will be slightly more powerful as it seeks customers for small satellites and rideshare missions.”