Jakarta –
The second mission of the new European Vega C rocket did not go as planned. The failure of the launch resulted in the loss of the two satellites it was carrying.
Vega C took off on Tuesday (20/12) local time from Spaceport Europe in Kourou, French Guiana, carrying two satellites for Airbus’ Pléiades Neo Earth imaging constellation.
The first stage of the rocket, known as P120C, has done its job well. But the second stage, called Zefiro 40, failed to work.
“Approximately 2 minutes and 27 seconds after liftoff, an anomaly occurred on Zefiro 40, ending the Vega C mission,” said a representative of Arianespace, the French company that operates Vega C.
“Data analysis is underway to determine the reasons for this failure,” he continued, as quoted by Space.com.
Vega C was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and operated by Arianespace. The 35-meter-tall, four-stage rocket is a more powerful version of the Vega, which first flew in 2012. The Vega C can carry about 2,300 kilograms of payload to a range of 435 miles in a high solar synchronous orbit (700 kilometers).
The two spacecraft lost due to the breakdown, Pléiades Neo 5 and Pléiades Neo 6, weighed together 1977 kg. The two are headed for a sun-synchronous orbit, where they will complete the imaging constellation Pléiades Neo Earth.
“This constellation consists of four identical satellites, built using the latest innovations and technological developments from Airbus, and allows viewing any point on the globe, several times a day, with a resolution of 30 cm,” wrote Arianespace in a description of the mission from Vega C.
Previously, a space launch failure also occurred in the world’s first methane-fueled rocket owned by China, which was launched into orbit on Wednesday (12/14).
Even worse, the failure of the Zhuque-2 rocket, the rocket’s name, resulted in China losing the 14 satellites it was carrying.
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