Invitation to the Media: Findings of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Failure of VV22

The Independent Commission of Inquiry charged with the analysis of the loss of the Vega C missile during flight VV22 will present its findings on Friday 3 March 2023 at the ESA headquarters in Paris.

Josef Aschbacher, Director General of ESA and Stéphane Israel, CEO of Arianespace will jointly present the results of the study at 10:00 CET in the presence of

Giovanni Colangelo, ESA Inspector General and co-chair of the Independent Commission of Inquiry;
Pierre-Yves Tissier, technical head of Arianespace and co-chair of the Independent Commission of Inquiry;
Giulio Ranzo, CEO of Avio;
Daniel Neuenschwander, director of space transport at ESA.

The failure of Vega C flight VV22, which carried the Pléiades Neo 5 and Pléiades Neo 6 satellites, was reported shortly after launch on 20 December 2022 at 22:47 local time in French Guiana (03:47 CET/02:47 GMT, December 21, 2022) announced.

Arianespace and ESA immediately set up an independent committee of inquiry to analyze the causes of the loss of the mission and determine the measures to be taken to ensure that all necessary safety and reliability conditions are met to operate the Vega C flights. can resume.

Program (times in CET)

Friday, March 3, 2023
9:30 am Doors open
10am Commencement of press conference and presentation of the findings of the independent commission of inquiry.
Question and answer session.
10:45 am End

Accreditation

The press conference will take place as a hybrid event at the ESA headquarters in Paris.

ESA HQ Bertrand
24 rue du General Bertrand
CS 30798
75345 Paris CEDEX 7
France

Media representatives are requested to register by Monday, February 27, 2023 at the following link: https://blogs.esa.int/forms/esa-media-briefing-form. Please indicate whether you intend to participate onsite or remotely. Thereafter, media representatives will receive additional information and the link to participate in the interactive online session if they wish to participate online (WebEx platform).
The press conference will also be streamed via esawebtv.esa.intbut only registered media can ask questions.
Upcoming ESA events can be found on the events calendar at www.esa.int/newsroom.

About the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space.
ESA is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1975 with the mission to shape the development of space in Europe and to ensure that investments in space are for the benefit of the citizens of Europe and the world
There are 22 member states of the ESA: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland. Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia are associate members.
ESA has a formal partnership with six EU Member States. Canada participates in some ESA programs through a cooperation agreement.
By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA is able to set up programs and activities that are far beyond the reach of a single European country. In particular, ESA cooperates with the EU in the implementation of the Galileo and Copernicus programs and with EUMETSAT in the development of meteorological missions.
More information about ESA can be found at www.esa.int