Arianespace and ESA have launched an independent investigation into the cause of Tuesday night’s failed launch of a Vega C rocket. There was a problem with the relatively new European rocket’s second stage.
Arianespace reported prior to 2.5 minutes after launch from French Guiana, an anomaly occurred in the stage of the Zefiro 40 rocket which ended this Vega C mission. Ground lift and ejection of the first stage was smooth, as well as the firing of the second stage, but then a sudden loss of pressure was noted. Subsequently, the intended trajectory was no longer flown and large deviations occurred which ended the mission prematurely and the rocket was deliberately detonated. With this, the two satellites that were on board, Pléiades Neo 5 and Pléiades Neo 6, were also lost. These were supposed to complement Airbus’ Pléiades Neo Earth constellation.
From the task is entrusted to the commission of inquiry analyze the causes of the failure of the mission and find solutions and measures so that they can resume flights with the Vega C rocket. There was a media briefing on Wednesday afternoon, but according to the Twitter account Space Voyaging they became little information was shared and questions were not allowed. Arianespace said it will share more information as the investigation progresses.
Tuesday night’s launch was the second mission of the new 35-meter Vega C rocket. The first launch of the rocket took place in July and was successful. The second launch was supposed to take place on November 24, but it happened earlier postponed from the discovery of broken equipment. The Vega C is a more powerful version of the existing Vega rocket that first flew in 2012. Among other things, the Zephyr-40 engine is new, replacing the original Vega rocket’s Zephyr 23. Zefiro stages contain solid fuel engines and are made by the Italian company Avio.
