LARES 2 mission in orbit: first laser ranging after the launch

LARES 2 has been launched with the maiden flight of the new Vega-C European launcher on July 13, 2022. The second LAser RElativity Satellite (the first LARES was launched ten years ago) has been put into its orbit, with remarkable precision. The satellite is designed to improve both laser ranging accuracy and the accuracy on the measurement of relativistic frame-dragging effect. Frame dragging has been already measured by the first LARES mission: LARES 2 experiment is expected to improve the accuracy of the previous test of at least one order of magnitude. The improvement in the tests of General Relativity is because of the special orbital configuration, the orbit of LARES 2 is supplementary to the orbit of the LAGEOS satellite (launched by NASA in 1976) while a new retroreflector distribution of the satellite has been adopted to improve the precision of satellite laser ranging measurement. The first laser ranging data were obtained by Matera Space Geodesy Centre just 3 days after the launch, and the satellite is currently tracked by several stations of the International Laser Ranging Service. The data are showing that it is performing on the same level or even better than benchmark targets such as the LAGEOS satellites in spite of LARES 2 having a lower optical cross-section. The data from LARES 2 will be used also for space geodesy and Earth science studies.