European Astrotech rounds off 2023 with the SARah 2 and 3 Launch Campaign in California
03rd January 2024
European Astrotech spent the early part of the Christmas period in California, supporting the SARah 2 and 3 launch campaign at the SpaceX facility, located in the Vandenberg Space Force base.
Both spacecraft were successfuly pressure tested and fuelled during the first week of December, leading to a launch on 24th December. Thiese were the 39th and 40th spacecraft fuelled by EAL to be delivered to orbit. A 41st spacecraft, FalconEye, was lost when the VEGA launch vehicle it was utilising failed to reach orbit.
This mission completed all European Astrotech activities for 2023, which included fuelling 5 spacecraft at 3 different launch sites as well as supporting simulant loading and offloading/drying of 3 further spacecraft from 2 European Test facilities, including the ESA HERA satellite. 2024 promises to be even busier, with at least 3 launch campaigns from Cape Canaveral already booked.
