Europe’s Vega light launcher is entering its commercial life boasting a flawless record and an impressive set of capabilities for a wide range of missions.

Vega scored its sixth straight success with the launch of ESA’s LISA Pathfinder scientific craft earlier this month, having already lofted payloads for Earth observation, space engineering and exploration.

Operator Arianespace has now taken over full responsibility for Vega’s commercial exploitation at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Such is the market confidence in Vega that nine of the 10 vehicles ordered by Arianespace from prime contractor ELV in November 2013 are already assigned to customers.

In 2016, Vega is scheduled to launch a dual mission carrying PeruSat-1, a Peruvian imaging satellite and four passenger payloads for Skybox Imaging. Turkey’s Göktürk-1 Earth observation satellite is also planned for launch before the end of the year.

Vega is the ideal launcher for small scientific and Earth observation payloads of 300–2500 kg operating in polar and low-Earth orbits, but it achieved much more than this during its demonstration phase.