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A European space rocket failed minutes after take-off with the loss of both satellites it was carrying, its operator said Tuesday.
The light launcher Vega, which would have put Spain’s first satellite into orbit, malfunctioned about eight minutes after launch from a space center in Kourou, French Guiana.
After taking off around 11:00 p.m. local time (0200 GMT), the launcher slowed down before encountering an unidentified “anomaly,” said Arianespace, the company overseeing the launch.
“The mission is lost,” CEO Stephane Israel said in a live stream to track down the rocket.
It’s unclear what caused the failure, but Arianespace said they were working to determine what went wrong.
Vega was supposed to place two satellites – both lost during the mission – about 700 kilometers (435 miles) from Earth.
The mission would launch the first Spanish Earth observation satellite for the European Space Agency (ESA).
It would also put Taranis, a French satellite that would observe extremely bright electrical phenomena in the planet’s upper atmosphere, into orbit.
The launch failure is the second in as many years.
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