Payload for the last launch of Avio’s Vega rocket now heading to French Guiana
While it remains unclear when the launch will occur, the two-satellite payload for the last launch of Europe’s Vega rocket is now heading to French Guiana.
The payload is two satellites that will be placed in orbits 180 degrees apart in order to make it possible to make fast repeat coverage of the Earth.
This particular launch is long delayed, for several reasons, one of which has been extremely embarrassing for Avio, the Italian company that builds the Vega family of rockets.
In December 2023, European Spaceflight reported that Avio had lost two of four propellant tanks required for the upper stage of the rocket’s final flight. The tanks were later found crushed, forcing the company to find an alternative. At the time, it proposed either using test articles of the tanks that had been used during the vehicle’s qualification phase in 2012 or modifying Vega C upper stage propellant tanks. It’s not clear which of the two options Avio selected to pursue.
The lack of any announced launch date suggests Avio might still have not come up with a solution, or if it has, the solution is not yet fully implemented.
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While it remains unclear when the launch will occur, the two-satellite payload for the last launch of Europe’s Vega rocket is now heading to French Guiana.
The payload is two satellites that will be placed in orbits 180 degrees apart in order to make it possible to make fast repeat coverage of the Earth.
This particular launch is long delayed, for several reasons, one of which has been extremely embarrassing for Avio, the Italian company that builds the Vega family of rockets.
In December 2023, European Spaceflight reported that Avio had lost two of four propellant tanks required for the upper stage of the rocket’s final flight. The tanks were later found crushed, forcing the company to find an alternative. At the time, it proposed either using test articles of the tanks that had been used during the vehicle’s qualification phase in 2012 or modifying Vega C upper stage propellant tanks. It’s not clear which of the two options Avio selected to pursue.
The lack of any announced launch date suggests Avio might still have not come up with a solution, or if it has, the solution is not yet fully implemented.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
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