First Estonian Satellite has been launched from Guiana

European rocket easy class "Vega" was successfully launched from the Baikonur space center in Guiana. Launching today at 06:06 MSK.

They managed to make the second attempt - the start was originally scheduled for May 4, but due to unfavorable weather conditions in the area cosmodrome has been postponed.

This launch was the second in the history of the operation of the missile. On its board are three research satellite: the European unit "Test-In" (Proba-V), Vietnamese "VNREDSat-1" (VNREDSat-1), and "ESTKyub-1" (ESTCube-1) - the first in Estonian history satellite weighing only 1.3 kg, created by students of the University of Tartu as ITAR-TASS.

Booster "Vega", developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), is designed to deliver into orbit by a small mass of the spacecraft.

Payload is 1.5 tons, the missile is capable of launching satellites into polar orbit at an altitude of 700 km.

Creating a rocket was initiated in the early 1990s by the Italian Space Agency and lasted 14 years. The total cost of the development of "Vega", which also involved other EU countries amounted to about 710 million euros.

Its first flight took place in February 2012. It is planned that the new carrier will be used primarily for the needs of researchers.

In the line of media available ESA, she added the heavy "Ariane 5" (payload up to 21 tons) and placed at the disposal of European experts in 2011, Russia's support of the middle class "Soyuz-ST" (payload of up to 9.2 tonnes).

Prior to 2016, ESA will run from the spaceport in Kourou five launches "Vega".