WASHINGTON — The second flight of Arianespace’s Vega C failed to succeed in orbit Dec. 20 after its second stage malfunctioned, destroying two Pléiades Neo imaging satellites.
The Vega C rocket lifted off at 8:47 p.m. Jap from Kourou, French Guiana, carrying the Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 imaging satellites for Airbus. The liftoff came about on schedule and the preliminary phases of flight appeared to go as deliberate.
Nevertheless, on-screen telemetry confirmed that the rocket was deviating the from its deliberate trajectory inside 4 minutes of liftoff, in the course of the burn of the rocket’s Zefiro-40 second stage. Arianespace mentioned in a later assertion that the stage malfunctioned 2 minutes and 27 second after liftoff, seconds after ignition of the stage.
The flight continued for a number of minutes, together with separation of the second stage and ignition of the third stage, in addition to payload fairing separation, even because the stage reached an apogee of 110 kilometers and began to descend.
“After the liftoff and the nominal ignition of the P120C, which is the primary stage of the Vega, an underpressure has been noticed on the Zefiro-40, which is the second stage of the Vega,” Stéphane Israël, chief government of Arianespace, mentioned on the launch webcast a couple of minutes later. “After this underpressure, we now have noticed the deviation of the trajectory and really sturdy anomalies, so sadly we will say that the mission is misplaced.”
He didn’t present further particulars about the issue. “We’ll now need to work with all of our companions about why the Zefiro-40 has not labored correctly tonight, triggering the failure of the mission,” he mentioned, apologizing to Airbus Defence and House, the client for the launch. Arianespace then terminated the launch webcast.
The launch was the second for the Vega C after a successful inaugural launch of the rocket July 13 carrying a set of institutional payloads. This was the primary business launch of the Vega C. The launch was postponed from late November due to an issue with the pyrotechnics within the payload fairing separation system.
The Vega C is an upgraded model of the Vega rocket with elevated payload efficiency. Among the many adjustments is the introduction of the Zefiro-40 solid-fuel second stage, which changed the much less highly effective Zefiro-23 used on the Vega. Avio is the prime contractor for the Vega C.
The Vega suffered two failures in three launches in 2019 and 2020. A 2019 Vega launch of the UAE’s Falcon Eye 1 imaging satellite failed due to an issue with the thermal safety system on a part of the rocket’s second stage. A Vega launch in November 2020 failed when its Avum higher stage tumbled instantly after ignition due to what Arianespace later decided to be improperly linked cables.
The failure of the Vega C offers one other blow to European efforts to keep up autonomy in launch. The Vega C was one of many cornerstones of that technique, together with the still-in-development Ariane 6, with the European Union awarding Arianespace a contract Nov. 29 for five Vega C launches of Sentinel satellites. That contract introduced the Vega C backlog to 13 launches, together with two remaining launches of the unique Vega.
The launch failure additionally hurts Airbus, which had counted on the launch so as to add to its constellation of high-resolution imaging satellites. Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 were similar to the previously launched Pléiades Neo 3 and 4 but included laser links for sooner transmission of images. An unspecified “equipment issue” with Pléiades Neo 3 led Airbus to file a partial insurance coverage declare after its April 2021 launch. Airbus mentioned the launch of Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 would enable it to work across the points with Pléiades Neo 3 and meet all its buyer commitments.
