A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard is seen on the launch pad at sunrise, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the United States, May 27, 2020. (Joel Kowsky/NASA/Handout via Xinhua)

A European Vega rocket lifted off Monday night from French Guiana carrying an Earth observation satellite and four miniature "cubesats."

It was the second launch in 2021 of the Vega, a crucial component of European ambitions to compete with rivals such as Elon Musk's SpaceX in the booming commercial aerospace market.

The rocket blasted off from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou at 10:47 pm, successfully delivering the satellites in just under two hours.

Its main cargo was a high-resolution satellite, the second of four for a new Earth satellite observation constellation operated by Airbus. 

The first satellite in the constellation was put in orbit in April by a Vega rocket.

The Pleiades Neo satellite constellation will offer high-resolution imaging of Earth for military or civilian uses such as disaster response, according to Airbus.

The Vega also carried four miniature satellites known as "cubesats." One of them will become part of another constellation of satellites being developed by French start-up Unseenlabs.

The remaining three cubesats are from the European Space Agency for scientific and technology demonstration purposes.

AFP