New Zealand, March 31 -- Two satellites, part of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Celeste in orbit demonstration mission, were launched at 10:14 CET today, atop a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from New Zealand. The two satellites separated from the launcher about an hour later. This marks the beginning of their early operations phase, during which mission control gets them ready for life in orbit. One of them, named IOD-2, was built by Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%).About the IOD-2 satelliteA CubeSat roughly the size of a suitcase and weighing around 30 kilograms, IOD-2 will play a key role in validating the system definition and enable early signal transmission, while derisking and demonstratin...