Arianespace launches the VV23 Vega mission on Oct. 8. Photo: Arianespace

Arianespace launched a Vega mission on Sunday, launching an Earth observation satellite THEOS-2 for Thailand and weather satellite Formosat-7R/Triton for Taiwan. The mission also carried 10 additional cubesats, but Arianespace has not confirmed if two of those were successfully deployed. 

The mission took off at 10:36 p.m. local time Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. 

Arianespace said in a press release that all separation commands were properly executed for the 10 cubesats onboard, and the launcher confirmed separation of eight cubesats, but the separation of the last two cubesats is still to be confirmed.

The auxiliary payloads included an IoT demonstration satellite for OQ Technology; the “PRETTY” European Space Agency (ESA) demonstration cubesat developed in Austria; two satellites manufactured by ISISPACE/ISL; three cubesats in the ANSER mission by Spain’s Instituto Nacional de Tecnica Aerospacial (INTA); an Earth observation satellite for Aerospacelab and ESA; a satellite to detect frequency-jamming for French space agency CNES; and ESTCUBE-2 on behalf of Estonia’s University of Tartu. 

Arianespace did not specify which two satellites are not yet confirmed. OQ Technology confirmed its two satellites were successfully deployed. 

The THEOS-2 satellite (THailand Earth Observation System-2), is a very-high-resolution Earth observation optical satellite, built by Airbus Defence and Space for Thailand. It will deliver 0.5-meter ground resolution imagery and will complement THEOS-1, launched in 2008.

Formosat-7R/Triton is Taiwan’s first independently developed meteorological satellite, designed and manufactured by Taiwan Space Agency (TASA). It is equipped with the Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry (GNSS-R), which collects signals that bounce off the sea surface. Scientists will use the data to calculate wind field over the oceans.