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Launch of the Vega rocket (Photo: Arianespace)
The four-stage Vega rocket was launched from the Guiana Space Center on the night of November 17. And after eight minutes of flight, something went wrong.
The rocket failed after 8 minutes of flight, causing the loss of the French and Spanish satellites, said Arianespace, which carried out the launch.
«We can now confirm that the mission was lost, ”said Arianespace CEO Stefan Israel during the launch webcast.
According to Arianespace, immediately after Vega launched his thruster, called Avum, it veered off course on a degraded trajectory. The rocket never made the next expected contact with ground stations.
«Eight minutes after starting and immediately after starting the engine of the fourth stage of the Vega, Avum stage, we observed a deterioration in the trajectory. This means that the speed was no longer nominal, ”Israel said.
Arianespace engineers are working to find out what caused the loss of the Vega launch vehicle and its two payloads: the Earth observation satellite SEOSAT-Ingenio for Spain and the TARANIS satellite for the French space agency CNES.
The apparent anomaly of Monday’s launch is the second major Vega rocket malfunction in two years. In July 2019, during a satellite launch for the United Arab Emirates, the rocket failed. An investigation has shown that the fault lies with a faulty motor.
The Vega rocket returned on September 2 when one of the rockets was used to launch 53 small satellites for 21 clients. This mission ended with total success.
«I want to offer my deepest apologies to my clients for this mission. Arianespace apologizes and now we have to analyze and understand what happened, ”Israel said.
The Vega single-use four-stage light-class rocket is designed to launch satellites weighing up to 2000 kg in a low reference and a circular polar orbit up to 700 km high. The first three stages of the rocket are equipped with solid rocket motors and the fourth with the Ukrainian RD-843 liquid propulsion motor.
We add that the Ukrainian Yuzhmash plant admitted that the Ukrainian engine could become the reason for the failure and loss of the Vega rocket.
«Unfortunately, during the fourth stage operation, telemetry was received about the deviation from the specified trajectory. The satellites have been declared lost, ”says a statement on Yuzhmash’s official Facebook page.
Vega’s fourth stage is equipped with a Ukrainian-made RD-843 engine. RD-843 is a liquid propellant jet engine developed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau of Ukraine. The engines are manufactured at the Yuzhmash plant in Dnieper.
Previously Nevada wrote that in late 2018, Arianespace’s Vega rocket launched the second Moroccan remote sensing satellite, named Mohammed VI-B. The launch of the Ukrainian-powered device took place from a cosmodrome in French Guiana.
It is the second satellite of the Kingdom of Morocco’s space program since the launch of Mohammed VI-A in November 2017. The Mohammed VI-B satellite will be used mainly for mapping and land management, regional development, agricultural monitoring, natural disaster prevention and border surveillance. The device weighs 1,110 kilograms.
Vega rocket developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) together with the Italian Space Agency (SO). It is designed to launch satellites weighing up to 1200 kg in a synchronous solar orbit with an altitude of 1200 km or satellites weighing 1500 kg in a polar orbit with an altitude of 700 km.
Vega was first launched on February 13, 2012 from the Kuru Cosmodrome.
