The European light launcher Vega-Cwhich was due to make its first commercial flight, went missing on Tuesday shortly following taking off from Kourouon the french guianawith two satellites Airbus on board, reported the company responsible for the launch.
Ten minutes following liftoff, at 22:47 local time (01:47 GMT), the launcher’s trajectory deviated from the planned path, and then the data stopped reaching the control room of the Kourou Space Center.
“The mission is lost,” he explained in a brief online appearance before the media Stephane Israel, the president of Arianespacethe consortium that operates the European shuttles Vega y Ariane.
In an equally brief statement, Arianespace specified that “approximately 2 minutes and 27 seconds following takeoff, an anomaly occurred in Zefiro 40 (the second level of the shuttle) and that has put an end to the Vega C mission.”
The consortium, which is a subsidiary in equal parts of the European group Airbus and the French aeronautical engine manufacturer Safranadded that “data analysis is underway to determine the reasons for this failure.”
Arianespace initially determined that no rubble left following takeoff of the shuttle, made in Italy.
The rocket Vega-C had to put two observation satellites built by Airbus into orbit, Pleiades Neo 5 y 6the last two in the Pléiades Neo series that make it possible to capture images of any point on Earth several times a day with a resolution of 30 centimeters.
Tuesday’s event was scheduled as the first commercial rocket flight following its inaugural release on July 13.
Originally scheduled for November 24, the flight was postponed for a month due to a faulty launch element.
Vega-C –C for “consolidation”, according to the Italian manufacturer Married— it is an upgraded version of the Vega light launcher, which has been sent into space 20 times since 2012, but suffered two major setbacks in 2019 and 2020. Its modernization has in particular increased power of regarding 50% to be able to carry payloads up to one ton.
This new failure is a severe setback for the European Space Agency (ESA), responsible for the European launcher programmes, in a context of fierce global competition in the sector, with the American SpaceX to the head.
(With information from AFP and EFE)
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