Last July, the European light launcher Vega experienced its first failure. A little more than 2 minutes after takeoff from the Guyana Space Center in Kourou and when the second floor was lit, an anomaly led to the premature termination of the mission.
The rocket began to deviate from its nominal trajectory. It was as a precaution and in accordance with safety procedures that the launcher was destroyed over the Atlantic Ocean. This flight VV15 was to place the Earth observation satellite FalconEye1 on orbit on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.
This week, an independent commission of inquiry presented its results to the European Space Agency and Arianespace. She identified a " thermo-structural failure in the front dome "of the Zefiro 23 engine used as the second stage which would be" the most likely cause of the abnormality. "
The commission of inquiry also specified that it had found " no indication of any malicious act. "She proposed a set of corrective actions relating to" all the subsystems, processes and equipment concerned. "
A return to flight of Vega is expected during the first quarter of 2020. The Italian Avio is Arianespace's main industrial partner in the manufacture of the Vega rocket (for engines).
