For its fifth launch of the year, and the first in 2018 with Vega, Arianespace will orbit the Aeolus satellite, the world’s first space mission to acquire profiles of Earth’s wind on a global scale, on behalf of the European Space Agency (ESA).

This marks the eighth Earth observation mission conducted by Arianespace for ESA. It will also be the 12th mission of the Vega launcher, which once again is to demonstrate its versatility and perfect adaptation to European missions dedicated to Earth observation.