The second mission of Europe’s new Vega C rocket didn’t go in line with plan.
The medium-lift Vega C lifted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana on Tuesday (Dec. 20) at 8:47 p.m. EST (10:47 p.m. native time; 0147 GMT on Dec. 21), carrying two satellites for Airbus’ Pléiades Neo Earth-imaging constellation.Â
The rocket’s first stage, referred to as the P120C, did its job. However the second stage, referred to as the Zefiro 40, didn’t.
“Roughly 2 minutes and 27 seconds after liftoff an anomaly occurred on the Zefiro 40, thus ending the Vega C mission,” representatives of Arianespace, the French firm that operates the Vega C, mentioned in an emailed assertion on Tuesday evening. “Knowledge analyses are in progress to find out the explanations of this failure.”
Associated: The history of rockets
The Vega CÂ was developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) and is operated by Arianespace.Â
The 115-foot-tall (35 meters), four-stage rocket is a extra highly effective model of the Vega, which first flew in 2012. The Vega C can haul about 5,070 kilos (2,300 kilograms) of payload to a 435-mile-high (700 kilometers) sun-synchronous orbit, in comparison with 3,300 kilos (1,500 kg) for the older rocket, according to Arianespace (opens in new tab).
The 2 spacecraft that have been misplaced attributable to Tuesday’s failure, Pléiades Neo 5 and Pléiades Neo 6, collectively weighed 4,359 kilos (1,977 kg). The duo have been headed to sun-synchronous orbit, the place they might have accomplished Airbus’ Pléiades Neo Earth-imaging constellation.
“The constellation is made of 4 an identical satellites, constructed utilizing the newest Airbus improvements and technological developments, and permits to picture any level of the globe, a number of occasions per day, at 30-centimeter [12 inches] decision,” Arianespace wrote in a mission description of the Vega C (opens in new tab).
“Extremely agile and reactive, they are often tasked as much as quarter-hour earlier than acquisition and ship the photographs again to Earth inside the following hour,” Arianespace added. “Smaller, lighter, extra agile, correct and reactive than the competitors, they’re the primary of their class whose capability shall be totally commercially accessible.”
The Vega C had one flight below its belt earlier than Tuesday. In July 2022, the rocket successfully lofted LARES-2, a 650-pound (295 kg) satellite developed by the Italian House Company, in addition to six ride-along cubesats.
Tuesday’s mission was initially presupposed to raise off on Nov. 24. However Arianespace delayed it almost a month to switch defective tools on the rocket, a course of that required opening the Vega C’s payload fairing (opens in new tab) at a processing facility in Kourou.
Additional analyses will presumably try to find out if the defective tools had something to do with the launch failure. We must always be taught extra on Wednesday (Dec. 21); Arianespace plans to carry a media teleconference at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT).
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a e book concerning the seek for alien life. Comply with him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Comply with us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab). Â
