Engineers say they have identified what caused the loss of a European Vega rocket and its two satellites on Monday evening. The BBC reported:
The problem was traced to the actuators that change the direction of thrust on the Vega’s upper-stage engine.
When they received commands from the guidance, navigation and control (GNC) system, they turned the motor’s nozzle counter to the intended direction.
Roland Lagier, from Arianespace, the company that markets and launches Vega rockets, said cabling on the thrust vector control system must have been inverted when the upper-stage engine was assembled.
“This was of course a production and quality issue. It was a human error and not a design one,” the chief technical officer told reporters.
Lost in the failure were Spain’s SeoSat-Ingenio Earth observation satellite and France’s Taranis research spacecraft, which was to study high-atmosphere lightning.
Vega has compiled a record of 15 successes and two failures since its maiden flight on Feb. 13, 2012. The first failure occurred during the 15th flight on July 11, 2019. An investigation determined the most likely cause was a thermo-structural failure in the forward dome area of the Z23 second stage motor.
Vega made a successful return to flight on Sept. 3, 2020, by launching 53 small satellites on its first rideshare mission.
