Aborted test and missing parts add to European space woes

11 months ago 39

The final flight of Italy’s Vega rocket has been delayed after crucial parts went missing, while the latest test of Europe’s new Ariane 6 has been aborted, the European Space Agency said, the latest glitches to affect Europe’s troubled launch sector.

The aborted test of the upper stage of Ariane 6 should not affect plans for an inaugural launch in mid-2024, ESA said.

Europe is racing to restore independent access to space after Ariane 6 suffered repeated delays and the Vega C was grounded after a launch failure, leaving a handful of launches of the original Vega version of the rocket.

Vega’s final lift-off had been set for spring 2024, but that has been delayed to September after two out of four of its large propellant tanks disappeared from a factory in Italy, ESA officials told a news conference.

The loss was first reported by specialist publication European Spaceflight, which said the tanks had been found “crushed” and unusable in a landfill, alongside scraps of metal.

Because there are no spares, other than ones used in testing, which could be risky to re-use, the plan is to adapt slightly larger tanks designed for the more recent Vega C model, said Toni Toker-Nielsen, ESA’s director of transportation.

He said the lost Vega tanks had not been stolen, but had no explanation as to how they ended up in a garbage dump.

According to the French space agency, Vega runs on propellant stored in four spherical 142-litre tanks.

Vega C failed on its second mission just under a year ago, destroying two imaging satellites. It will return to flight between mid-November and mid-December 2024, Toker-Nielsen said.

For the larger Ariane 6, the hot-firing test of the upper stage at Lampoldshauen in Germany on 7 Decеmber was designed to study operating limits in degraded conditions and other factors.

“Unfortunately we had an abort two minutes into the firing test,” Toker-Nielsen told reporters.

Manufacturer ArianeGroup is analysing the reasons, he said, adding there were no signs that the aborted test would delay the inaugural flight, scheduled for mid-June to end-July 2024.

ArianeGroup, co-owned by Airbus and Safran, was not immediately available for comment.

ESA said last month a long-firing engine test had been carried out successfully at a launchpad in French Guiana, allowing it to pick a launch window in 2024.

A further loading test will go ahead as planned on Friday.