Europe's Vega C rocket launch ended in disaster last night, with two satellites belonging to Airbus lost in space. The launch took place from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, and was carrying the Pléiades Neo 5 and Pléiades Neo 6 satellites. The medium-lift Vega C lifted off at 10:47 p.m. local time and just 2 minutes and 27 seconds into the flight, an anomaly was detected. The spacecraft was unable to reach its intended Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the mission was declared a failure. Airbus released a statement saying, "We are deeply saddened by the loss of the two Pléiades Neo satellites. We are currently assessing the situation and working with our partners to determine the cause of the anomaly." This is the second major failure of a Vega launch, after the Vega VV15 mission in November 2019, which also failed to reach its intended orbit. The European Space Agency (ESA) is now launching an investigation into the cause of the failure. The ESA has stated that they are "committed to understanding the root cause of the issue and will take all necessary steps to ensure that it does not happen again." The loss of the two satellites is a major setback for Airbus and the European space industry. The Pléiades Neo satellites were part of a constellation of Earth-imaging satellites that were set to provide high-resolution imagery to customers. The Vega C rocket was developed by the Italian Space Agency, with the support of ESA and the French space agency CNES. The rocket is designed to carry payloads of up to 2.2 tons into LEO.