Last year, Europe's VegaC rocket failed on its second mission. Now, a commission had found that the problem was due to a faulty engine part.
When the European Union sanctioned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine last year, the Russian space program responded by revoking European access to its Soyuz rockets. That left the European Space Agency in need of a rocket that could launch satellites into orbit. As a result, ESA had been working on an upgrade to its own rocket, the Vega, which is designed for launching small payloads.
So far, so good. The second mission for the Vega-C in December 2022, however, did not go so well. The rocket lifted off as planned from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, but around two-and-a-half minutes after liftoff a problem occurred with the rocket’s second stage. The mission failed and the payload, two Pléiades Neo Earth observation satellites for Airbus Defence and Space, were lost.
The nozzle had a manufacturing defect, causing it to deteriorate due to the heat and stresses it had been put under. “The Commission confirmed that the cause was an unexpected thermo-mechanical over-erosion of the carbon-carbon throat insert of the nozzle, procured by Avio in Ukraine,” ESA wrote. “Additional investigations led to the conclusion that this was likely due to a flaw in the homogeneity of the material.
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