Commercial activity is picking up in Panama, but its benefits are not reaching everyone equally, says the private sector.

On Tuesday, a Vega-C rocket successfully launched from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, placing two new satellites into orbit. The payload consisted of the FLEX satellite, designed to study plant photosynthesis from space, and the Sentinel-3C satellite, which will reinforce Earth observation capabilities.

The mission marks a significant collaborative deployment within European space operations, combining agricultural and environmental monitoring technologies. The FLEX spacecraft represents a specialized tool for botanical research on a global scale, while the Sentinel addition continues the expansion of the broader Sentinel constellation's monitoring network.