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Vega VV17 flight failure: Arianespace and ESA appoint an independent commission of inquiry
Press release from: European Space Agency
Published: Wednesday 18 November 2020
On Tuesday, November 17, Arianespace announced the loss of the Vega VV17 mission, which carried two payloads: SEOSAT-Ingenio for ESA and TARANIS for the French space agency, CNES.
Two and a half months after Vega’s return to flight, the Vega launcher took off as scheduled on November 17 at 02:52 CET / 22:52 local time on November 16 from the European spaceport of Kourou, French Guiana. The first three stages functioned nominally until the AVUM upper stage was turned on, eight minutes after leaving the launch pad. At that moment a degraded trajectory was detected, followed by a loss of control of the vehicle and the consequent loss of the mission.
The launcher fell in a completely uninhabited area near the launch area planned for the Zefiro-9 stadium.
Initial investigations, conducted overnight with available data, indicate that a problem with the integration of the fourth stage AVUM nozzle activation system is the most likely cause of the launcher loss of control.
In accordance with their standard protocols, Arianespace and ESA will set up an independent commission of inquiry chaired jointly by Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA’s director of space transport, and Stéphane Israël, Arianespace’s chief executive, on 18 November. The Commission will provide detailed evidence to explain why no steps have been taken to identify and correct the integration error. The Commission will formulate a road map for the return of Vega to the flight in conditions of absolute reliability. Arianespace and ESA will jointly present the results of this commission.
“My thoughts are with all the teams, especially the CDTI and CNES, for their hard work on the two lost satellites,” said ESA Director General Jan Wörner. “I will personally make sure that I fully understand the root cause, but also that I bring Vega back to the solidity and reliability of the service it has demonstrated since its first launch in 2012.”
ESA developed SEOSAT – Ingenio as a Spanish national mission as a result of an international collaborative effort. It was funded by the Spanish Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) of the Ministry of Science and Innovation. Other partners included Airbus Defense and Space, being the satellite’s main industrial contractor.
Spain’s high-resolution imaging mission, SEOSAT-Ingenio, was designed to provide high-resolution images of the earth’s land cover. From an extremely detailed picture, this satellite mission would have benefited society in various ways, for example for land use monitoring, urban development planning and water management. With its ability to look sideways, it would be able to access any point on Earth within three days and could help map natural disasters such as floods, fires and earthquakes.
ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programs Josef Aschbacher said: “We are all very saddened by the loss of the SEOSAT-Ingenio land monitoring mission. But despite this loss, I want to remind you that we have fully achieved the other goal, which is to develop a strong experience in space systems in Spain. This was recently demonstrated by the signing of the industrial contract with the Spanish industry as First of Copernicus’ LSTM expansion mission “.
Also on this flight was TARANIS, Tool for the Analysis of RAdiation from lightNIng and Sprites, an Earth observation microsatellite for the French space agency, CNES. It was designed to observe the light, radiative and electromagnetic phenomena that occur at altitudes of 20 to 100 km during thunderstorms.
About Vega
Vega is a 30m high four-stage launch vehicle operating from the European spaceport in French Guiana. It is designed to lift between 300 kg and 1.5 tons of payload depending on orbit and altitude.
ESA’s upcoming Vega-C, a more powerful version of Vega, will offer 700kg more capacity and larger volume within a wider casing of the launcher at a cost similar to Vega, allowing for even more passengers per single launch of rideshare at a significantly lower cost per kilogram.
Information on the European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.
ESA is an intergovernmental organization, created in 1975, with the mission of shaping the development of Europe’s space capacity and ensuring that investments in space benefit the citizens of Europe and the world.
ESA has 22 member states: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Slovenia and Latvia are associate members.
ESA has established formal cooperation with six EU Member States. Canada participates in some ESA programs under a cooperation agreement.
More information on ESA at www.esa.int
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