16.09.2026 news
FLEX is in Orbit!
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, at 03:21 Central European Summer Time, the FLEX mission reached a long-awaited and decisive milestone: the launch. Together with Sentinel-3C, the Earth Explorer launched aboard ESA’s Vega-C rocket, lighting up the night sky over Kourou in French Guiana. This was followed by an approximately two-hour ascent, during which Sentinel-3C was first delivered into its future orbit, as Vega-C separated from the larger satellite and navigated towards FLEX’s future orbit next, where the satellite was finally deployed. The quiet tension was replaced by thunderous applause when FLEX sent its first signal to ESA’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) at around 05:20 CEST. It was now official: FLEX had arrived. FLEX was in orbit!
