Arianespace’s Soyuz launch on Dec. 18, 2019. Photo: Arianespace

Arianespace launched five payloads on a Soyuz rocket on Wednesday, Dec. 18, at 8:54 UTC from the Guiana Space Center (CSG) in Kourou, French Guiana, including COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation and CHEOPS. It was Arianespace’s 23rd launch of the Soyuz medium-lift launcher from CSG. The rocket carried a total payload of 3,065 kg. The launch had been scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 17, but it was postponed when the launcher’s automated sequence was interrupted during final countdown operations, according to a news release. 

COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation, the main payload on the mission, was developed by Thales Alenia Space for the Italian Space Agency and the Italian Ministry of Defense. The goal for the satellite is to strengthen Italy’s role in the Earth Observation (EO) market. Featuring a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capable of observations under different weather and lighting conditions, COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation is predicted to set a new performance standard for space-based radar observation systems.

The Airbus-built CHEOPS satellite is the first exoplanetary mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). It is also the first satellite built by Airbus in Spain for ESA. CHEOPS is set to characterize exoplanets of nearby stars, observing known planets in the size range between Earth and Neptune and precisely measuring their radii to determine their density and understand what they are made of. After the in-orbit commissioning, CHEOPS will start its operational lifetime of at least 3.5 years and will operate in a Sun-synchronous Earth orbit at an altitude of 700 km.

Phillipe Pham, Airbus Space Systems head of Earth Observation, Navigation and Science, said in a statement: “CHEOPS, a pathfinder for future exoplanets missions, is a very important program for Airbus as it is the first Science mission primed from Spain.” 

The launch also carried three auxiliary payloads — ANGELS, EyeSat, and OPS-SAT. The OPS-SAT cubesat is the first satellite to be launched by Arianespace for operator Tyvak, on behalf of ESA. Tyvak offers access to space by providing end-to-end space systems using aerospace processes and accelerating on-orbit access for the small-, nano- and cubesat categories of satellites.

EyeSat, launched for French space agency CNES, will study the zodiacal light and take images of the Milky Way. And ANGELS is a 12U CubeSat, and is the first nanosatellite wholly produced by French industry. It was jointly financed and developed by CNES and French firm Hemeria. The satellite will be fitted with a miniaturized ARGOS Néo instrument to collect and determine the position of low-power signals and messages sent by the 20,000 ARGOS beacons. 

In a statement, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall said: “Once again, all of CNES’s teams rose magnificently to the task. … This launch shows the ability of Europe’s range of launchers to adapt to the needs of the market, which is now opening up to nanosatellites.”

Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël celebrated the company’s ninth and final launch of 2019. In a statement, he said: “The success of this multiple satellite launch for our customers clearly shows that Arianespace’s launch services are perfectly adapted to the requirements of Europe, its agencies and ESA member-states.”