(Reuters) – Italy’s aerospace group Avio said on Thursday that French launch services company Arianespace had signed new launch contracts for the Vega C launcher vehicle, pushing the Italian firm shares up more than 4%.
The deals include a contract with the Italian Space Agency for the launch of two lightweight advanced satellite platforms between 2022 and 2024, as well as launch service contracts with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the launch of Flex and Altius satellites by 2025.
Rome-based Avio, which is the prime contractor for European launcher Vega, added it had also signed a development contract worth about 50 million euros ($56.79 million) with ESA.
The Vega C maiden flight is expected in May 2022, Avio added in the statement.
Avio shares were up 3.1% by around 0855 GMT, outperforming a flattish Milan stock market.
($1 = 0.8804 euros)
(Reporting by Federico Maccioni, editing by Maria Pia Quaglia)
