Europa’s Vega C rocket fails on second mission, 2 satellites lost
The second mission of Europe’s new Vega C rocket did not go as planned.
The mid-rise Vega C came out of Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on Tuesday (December 20) at 20:47 EST (22:47 local time; 0147 GMT on December 21), carrying two satellites for the Earth-imaging constellation Pleiades Neo from Airbus.
The rocket’s first stage, known as the P120C, did its job. But the second stage, called Zefiro 40, did not.
“Approximately 2 minutes and 27 seconds after liftoff, an anomaly occurred in Zefiro 40, ending the Vega C mission,” said representatives of Arianespace, the French company that operates Vega C. in an emailed statement Tuesday night. “Data analyzes are ongoing to determine the reasons for this failure.”
Related: The history of rockets
The Vega C was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and is operated by Arianespace.
The 115 feet high (35 meters), four stages rocket is a more powerful version of Vega, which first flew in 2012. Vega C can carry about 5,070 pounds (2,300 kilograms) of payload into a 435-mile-high (700-kilometer) sun-synchronous orbit, compared with 3,300 pounds (1,500 kg) for the oldest rocket, according to Arianespace (opens in a new tab).
The two spacecraft lost in Tuesday’s failure, Pleiades Neo 5 and Pleiades Neo 6, weighed a combined 4,359 pounds (1,977 kg). The duo headed into sun-synchronous orbit, where they would have completed Airbus’ Pleiades Neo Earth-imaging constellation.
“The constellation is made up of four identical satellites, built with Airbus’ latest technological innovations and developments, and allows images of any point on the globe, several times a day, at 30 centimeters. [12 inches] resolution,” Arianespace wrote in a Vega C mission description (opens in a new tab).
“Highly agile and reactive, they can be commissioned up to 15 minutes before acquisition and send the images to Earth within the next hour,” added Arianespace. “Smaller, lighter, more agile, more precise and more responsive than the competition, they are the first in their class whose capability will be fully commercially available.”
The Vega C had a flight in action before Tuesday. In July 2022, the rocket raised successfully LARES-2, a 650-pound (295 kg) satellite developed by the Italian Space Agency, on top of six cubesats.
Tuesday’s mission was originally scheduled to lift off on November 24. But Arianespace delayed it by nearly a month to replace faulty rocket equipment, a process that required opening the Vega C’s payload fairing (opens in a new tab) at a processing facility in Kourou.
Further analysis will likely attempt to determine whether the faulty equipment had anything to do with the launch failure. We should learn more on Wednesday (December 21); Arianespace plans to hold a media conference call at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT).
Mike Wall is the author of “Over there (opens in a new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in a new tab). follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) or on Facebook (opens in a new tab).
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