Co-chaired by Arianespace and the European Space Agency (ESA), this "independent" commission will be "responsible for highlighting the cause of the failure and proposing solid and lasting corrective actions to guarantee a safe and reliable return to flight of Vega-C,” he said during a short press conference.
Two minutes and 24 seconds after takeoff on Tuesday at 10:47 p.m. local time (01:47 GMT), the trajectory of the small rocket deviated from that programmed and the telemetry then stopped arriving at the control room of the Space Center in Kourou, Guyana. French.
Launched over the Atlantic Ocean, the rocket had just exceeded 100 kilometers in altitude and was then just over 900 kilometers north of Kourou.
The European light launcher Vega-C © Aude GENET / AFP
The order to destroy the launcher was then given by CNES, the French space agency, as the launch authority.
"No damage to persons or property was found," according to Arianespace.
According to Pierre-Yves Tissier, technical director of Arianespace, "the failure seems to be limited to the Zefiro 40", the second stage of the launcher built by the Italian Avio.
The flight data was recovered for analysis purposes.
"We take full responsibility for this failure of Vega-C," said Avio boss Giulio Ranzo.
With the firings of Vega-C suspended, this means that Europe no longer has independent access to space, beyond the two firings of Ariane 5 and two others of the Vega rocket (from which Vega is derived). -C) that remains to be done.
The maiden flight of Ariane 6 is scheduled for the third quarter of 2023.
According to Stéphane Israel, "neither Ariane 5 nor Ariane 6 are impacted by what unfortunately happened last night".
© 2022 AFP