On its successful third flight, Vega, the European Space Agency’s small launch vehicle which is operated by Arianespace, successfully launched the KazEOsat-1 (DZZ-HR) spacecraft for the Government of Kazakhstan into a Sun-synchronous near polar low Earth orbit. The launch of the high resolution Earth observation spacecraft took place from the Kourou in French Guiana at 0135 GMT on 30 April 2014. The spacecraft which was built by Astrium (now Airbus Defense and Space) is designed to operate for seven years three months and will have civil and military applications. The 830kg spacecraft has a reported resolution of 1m panchromatic and 4m multispectral and will be operated by specially trained Kazakh engineers.
