Avio’s third Vega C launch of 2026 is now expected to take place close to Christmas, several weeks later than the company had planned, because customer satellites have been slow to arrive at the launch site.
Avio CEO Giulio Ranzo gave the update during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on 11 November. He said the mission, which will carry six satellites, was waiting on the final spacecraft to be delivered. He described it as a mission with six different satellites, and said the late arrivals were bringing the launch very close to Christmas Day.
The new timing marks a clear slip. On the half-year earnings call on 10 September, Ranzo had put the mission at the very beginning of December. His latest remarks suggest a delay of roughly two to three weeks.
IRIDE satellites in French Guiana
The flight is expected to carry six satellites for Italy’s IRIDE Earth observation constellation. Photographs published by the French space agency CNES show that a shipment of the satellites, built by Thales Alenia Space, arrived in French Guiana by air on 9 November 2026. The spacecraft were then moved from Félix Éboué Airport to the Guiana Space Centre, reaching the S3B payload preparation building the following day.
A recurring scheduling constraint
This is not the first time this year that Avio has attributed Vega C schedule changes to late payload deliveries. On the September call, Ranzo said the company could have flown more than three Vega C missions in 2026, but that one satellite was somewhat late.
Avio has so far completed two Vega C launches this year. The most recent, on 15 September, placed the European Space Agency’s FLEX satellite and the European Commission’s Sentinel-3C Earth observation satellite into orbit.
Cadence targets become more cautious
Avio is trying to raise Vega C’s annual launch rate. On the November call, Ranzo said the company aimed to move to four launches per year and eventually five, provided customers can meet their spacecraft delivery schedules.
That outlook is more measured than the one he gave in May, when he suggested Avio might conduct as many as five Vega C launches in 2027. That figure would have been one short of the company’s medium-term goal of six flights per year. The November comments describe a more gradual build-up, from four launches to five, which suggests Avio could now be targeting four flights in 2027. Ranzo attached a condition to that outlook: customers must keep to their deadlines.
Source: europeanspaceflight.com
