The failure of the first commercial flight of Vega C marks another setback for Europe

New setback for theSpace Europe. Vega C’s first commercial flight ended in failure on Tuesday night. Two minutes and twenty-seven seconds after taking off from its launch pad in Kourou, Guyana, the successor to the small Italian rocket deviated from its trajectory, at an altitude of more than 100 km. “The mission is lost,” confirmed Stéphane Israel, executive chairman of Arianespace, which markets the Ariane and Vega rockets.

According to the first flight data, “an anomaly occurred on Zefiro 40, the second stage of Vega C, which terminated the mission”. Takeoff (at 10:47 p.m.) had nevertheless gone well. Vega C soared into space, following a “nominal” trajectory, to use the term. Then, the PC 120 boosters, which allow Vega C to tear itself away from the Earth’s attraction, separated, as planned, from the rocket, paving the way for the ignition of the second stage. The Zefiro 40 turned on fine, then a malfunction…