Vega fails, SpaceX scores: Europe’s space travel in crisis

Status: 18:39 | Reading time: 3 minutes

ISEurope’s missiles are becoming less reliable, as US private company SpaceX introduces the world to a modern manned space flight. At virtually the same time, another European unmanned rocket mission Vega failed Tuesday night, and the Americans easily transported four people to the ISS space station.

The Vega was launched from the European spaceport in French Guiana in South America and was supposed to carry a Spanish surveillance satellite (“Seosat-Ingenio”) and a French scientific satellite (“Taranis”) into orbit.

But after a good eight minutes of flight there were problems with the fourth stage, powered by a re-ignitable Ukrainian engine (Avum). The satellites did not reach their intended trajectory and are likely to have largely burned out when they entered thicker air layers.

A few hours after the missile failure, human error and poor quality control emerged as the cause of the crash. As Roland Lagier, technical director of rocket dealer Arianespace said, the upper tier began to falter after the engine fired. The two thrust control unit cables were likely swapped.

Customers might jump off

European Arianespace rocket marketing chief Stéphane Israël had no choice but to admit failure.

Commands to one adjustment mechanism were performed by the other. “This was clearly a manufacturing and quality issue, a series of human errors and not a design issue,” Lagier said. The main contractor for the construction of the Vega rocket is the Italian group Avio listed on the stock exchange with a turnover of almost 370 million euros and 1,000 employees. The price of the Avio share fell by 16 percent on Tuesday. The engine for the fourth stage of the rocket is supplied by two Ukrainian companies.

It is the second Vega disaster in the last three launches of the previous 30-meter high rocket. In July 2019, a flight with the “Falcon Eye” spy satellite to the United Arab Emirates failed for the first time after 15 launches. The mission was insured for $ 415 million and is being recreated. As they say, in the future the Emirates no longer want to use the Vega, but a Russian Soyuz rocket.

The renewed bankruptcy of Vega can trigger a domino effect: customers could jump out and insurance premiums could rise.

Vega’s failure is also painful for space travel in Europe, as more and more smaller satellites are being built. You also only need smaller launch vehicles like the Vega. This type of rocket is the small cargo transporter of the European space agency ESA. The so-called micro-launchers, which are currently being developed in Europe by start-ups, are sufficient for very small satellites.

An investigative commission is again active to determine the cause of Vega’s failure. The now failed Vega variant is expected to be replaced by a more modern version (Vega C), scheduled for 2021. This could be delayed.

One of the peculiarities of the rocket, built mainly in Italy, is that the first three stages have a solid fuel propulsion system. Only the fourth stage runs on highly toxic liquid fuel.

But the Vega isn’t the only problem for European space travelers. In the case of large rockets like the Ariane, Europeans are already struggling with delays in the new version of Ariane 6 and with rising costs.

US competitor SpaceX is snatching more commercial customers from Europeans with its trusty Falcon rocket. The space company founded by Elon Musk can also score with low prices because the rockets are reusable and SpaceX has money in its chest thanks to huge contracts with the US government.

So far, the manned mission of the SpaceX “Crew Dragon” capsule with four people has gone smoothly. After a 27-hour flight, the reusable capsule is docked at the ISS space station. The flight back to earth is expected in about six months. It is the second manned flight of a dragon capsule after an initial test mission with two astronauts in May.