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The second mission of the new European Vega C rocket did not go according to plan.
Zap Vega C medium lift from Spaceport in Europe In Kourou, French Guiana on Tuesday (Dec. 20) at 8:47 p.m. EDT (10:47 p.m. local time; 0147 GMT Dec. 21), carrying two satellites of the Pléiades Neo constellation for Earth imaging from Airbus.
The first stage of the rocket, known as the P120C, did its job. But the second stage, called Zefiro 40, didn’t.
“About 2 minutes and 27 seconds after liftoff, an anomaly occurred on Zefiro 40, resulting in the termination of the Vega C mission,” representatives for the French company operating Vega C, Arianespace, said in an emailed statement Tuesday evening. Data analyzes are ongoing to determine the reasons for this failure.
Related: Rocket history
Vega C is developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and is operated by Arianespace.
115 feet (35 metres), four stages Rocket is a more powerful version of the Vega, which first flew in 2012. Vega C can haul about 5,070 lb (2,300 kg) of payload into a 435-mile (700 km) heliosynchronous orbit, compared to 3,300 lb ( 1500 kg) for the older missile, According to Arianespace (Opens in a new tab).
The two spacecraft lost due to Tuesday’s failure, Pléiades Neo 5 and Pléiades Neo 6, together weighed 4,359 pounds (1,977 kilograms). The duo was heading into a sun-synchronous orbit, where it would have completed the Pléiades Neo constellation for Earth imaging from Airbus.
“The array consists of four identical satellites, built using the latest Airbus innovations and technological developments, and allows imaging of any point in the world, several times a day, at a height of 30 cm. [12 inches] decision,” Arianespace wrote in a Vega C mission description (Opens in a new tab).
“It is flexible and highly interactive, and it can be assigned a task for up to 15 minutes before it is acquired and sends images back to Earth within the next hour,” Arianespace added. “Smaller, lighter, more agile, precise and interactive than competitors, they are the first in their class whose capacity will be fully commercially available.”
Vega Sea has one trip under its belt before Tuesday. In July 2022, the rocket Uploaded successfully LARES-2, a 650-pound (295 kg) satellite developed by the Italian Space Agency, plus six ride-on cubes.
The mission was originally supposed to take off on Tuesday, November 24. But Arianespace delayed it nearly a month to replace the rocket’s faulty equipment, a process that required a massive launch Open payload gift for Vega C (Opens in a new tab) in a processing facility in Kourou.
Additional analyzes should attempt to determine if the defective equipment had anything to do with the launch failure. We should learn more on Wednesday (21st December); Arianespace plans to hold a teleconference at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT).
Mike Wall is the author of “Abroad (Opens in a new tab)Book (Major Major Publishers, 2018; illustration by Carl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @tweet (Opens in a new tab). Follow us on Twitter @tweet (Opens in a new tab) or on Facebook (Opens in a new tab).
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