Curtiss-Wright Congratulates AVIO and the European Space Agency on the Successful Inaugural Launch of the Vega-C Launcher

Curtiss-Wright’s Defense Solutions division, a leading supplier of flight test instrumentation solutions engineered to succeed, today congratulated Italy’s AVIO S.p.A., the prime contractor for the Vega-C launcher, and the European Space Agency (ESA) on the successful first launch of the Vega-C. Curtiss-Wright provides a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) telemetry data subsystem for the new launcher. Vega-C is designed to deliver government, commercial, and science payloads weighing up to 2,200 kg to Sun-synchronous Earth orbit. As this market is especially cost-sensitive, ESA’s goal is for the Vega-C launcher to serve as a next-generation launch vehicle that is able to support the same or greater mission objectives as the original Vega but at a reduced cost. Curtiss-Wright’s cost-effective COTS electronics systems approach supports this challenging performance/cost target.

“We extend our sincerest congratulations to AVIO and the European Space Agency on the successful launch of the Vega-C,” said Chris Wiltsey, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions. “We are very proud to support this important program with our cost-effective Space COTS products. Our unique Smart Backplane technology enables radiation-tolerant electronics to be used in many applications across many market sectors, allowing lower-cost COTS modules to be reliably used in harsh space environments.”

Curtiss-Wright provides AVIO with a full telemetry subsystem used on the Vega-C launcher, including data acquisition, data handling, and RF transmission.