Failure of the Vega rocket launch: the reason is not in the Ukrainian engine

The accident at the beginning occurred due to human factors and also to an error in the cables that lead to the control drives of the plant’s thrust vector.

The failed launch of the Italian Vega light rocket with a Ukrainian engine became a human factor, reports SpaceNews.

The publication, referring to the chief technical director of European launch operator Arianespace Roland Laguier, notes that the problems with the fourth stage (upper stage) Avum, whose main design is manufactured by Airbus, are due to “a problem of production and quality, a series of human errors and not a design problem. ” …

According to him, at Avum, which contains, in particular, the Ukrainian-made RD-843 liquid-propelled rocket motor, the cables leading to the thrust vector control units of the power plant were mixed.

Vega was launched in November from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana with the Spanish spacecraft SEOSAT-Ingenio, owned by the European Space Agency (ESA), and the TARANIS satellite of the French National Center for Space Research.

The previous day it was reported that the launch of the Vega rocket had failed. Eight minutes after the start of the VV17 Vega mission and the first ignition of the Avum upper stage engine, a path deviation was detected.

On the eve of the founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk confirmed the quality of the Ukrainian rocket engines.

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