Europe Has Few Options to Reach Space After Vega-C Rocket Crash

Earlier this hebdomad , Arianespace ’s Vega - C rocket suffered a fateful anomaly that resulted in the personnel casualty of two artificial satellite . The rocket , which debuted a few months ago , was meant to sate a major disruption for the European space industry , but is now ground pending an probe .

Arianespace and the European Space Agency ( ESA ) have appointed an self-governing inquiry commission to analyze the reason for the roquette ’s unsuccessful person on Tuesday and settle what needs to be done before Vega - C can resume flights , consort to astatementby Arianespace .

It ’s not yet unclouded how long the Vega - C rocket will be suspended as the independent commission investigates Tuesday ’s mission failure . In the backwash of a July 2019 bad luck , the rocket was ground for more than a year as the investigating adopt place , asreportedin SpaceNews . The BBCsaysthis is the third prison term a Vega rocket has suffered a mission bankruptcy in the last eight liftoffs .

The Vega-C rocket lifting off from its launch pad at the Kourou space base, French Guiana, December 21, 2022.

The Vega-C rocket lifting off from its launch pad at the Kourou space base, French Guiana, 11 May 2025.Photo: JM Guillon (AP)

Vega - C is develop by ESA , built by Italian fellowship Avio , and operated by Arianespace . The rockettook offon Tuesday at 8:47 p.m. ET from the Kourou space infrastructure in French Guiana , carrying the Neo 5 and Neo 6 satellite for Airbus’Pléiades NeoEarth - imaging constellation .

The Eruca sativa ’s first stage , the new P120C motor , performed as planned . about two and a one-half minutes after launching , however , ground team noticed a pressure chamber decrement in the rocket ’s 2nd - point Zefiro-40 engine . “ Under received procedure , the order of devastation of the catapult was given by CNES , the launching safety office , ” Arianespace wrote in the instruction .

“ We take full charge of the duty for this Vega - C failure , ” Giulio Ranzo , main executive director of Avio , articulate during a military press conference on Wednesday . The company ’s share fell 9.5 % in trading on Wednesday , according to SpaceNews .

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This was Vega - C ’s 2nd time to aviate and its first time to hold a commercial payload . On July 13,Vega - C successfully completed its initiative escape , delivering the Italian Space Agency ’s LARES-2 to orbit as its primary payload . Vega - C was on spigot to perform as many as 10 flying in 2023 and another 15 in 2024 . The Eruca vesicaria sativa ’s interruption will undoubtedly serve up as a major incommodiousness to a turn of cardinal mission and potentially make a nasty stockpile .

Vega - C is the extremely anticipated heir to the Vega launcher , which had been in cognitive operation for 10 year . The update rocket is plan to be more effective , as it ’s equip with a more powerful first and second microscope stage , as well as an improved re - ignitible upper degree . The timing of Vega - C ’s reaching was just , given Russia ’s intrusion of Ukraine and the ensue geopolitical complications .

Indeed , ESA antecedently rely on Russia ’s Soyuz average - lift rocket engine to set up many of its missions to space . But in February , Russia halted Soyuz launch from French Guiana and pulled its staff office from the space base of operations in reply to European endorsement imposed against it . That left key missions in limbo , let in two Galileo seafaring satellites , ESA ’s Euclid space observatory , EarthCARE Earth science satellite , and a Gallic reconnaissance mission satellite .

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Europe on the spur of the moment had piddling to select from in footing of launching vehicles , as it expect for the inaugural flight of Vega - C and Ariane 6 . Ariane 6 , a successor to Ariane 5 , was originally slated for launch in 2020 , but has suffered numerous delays and is nowscheduledto fly in 2023 .

ESA eventuallyturned to SpaceXafter weigh its options between the Elon Musk - led society and garden rocket supplied by either Japan or India . During aninterviewwith Reuters in August , ESA ’s Director General Josef Aschbacher said SpaceX is “ the more operational of those and surely one of the back - up launch we are look at . ”

pitiful to hear this . It is a sobering reminder of the difficulty of orbital outer space flight .

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— Elon Musk ( @elonmusk)December 21 , 2022

“ bad to discover this,”wroteMusk on Twitter yesterday in response to the rocket failure . “ It is a sobering monitor of the difficulty of orbital space flight . ”

ESA was depend on Vega - C to start lift European shipment to orb , job that have now been put on hold as a result of Tuesday ’s mission loser . Hopefully ESA and its secret married person will rapidly recuperate from this reversal and begin launch payloads on a more consistent basis .

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