The Italy-based aerospace firm Avio has not had the perfect of luck with its Vega rocket, which has all the time been one thing of an odd duck in the launch business. Now, as the rocket nears its last launch, it is missing some essential parts.
The European Spaceflight publication studies that two of the 4 propellant tanks on the fourth stage of the Vega rocket—the higher stage, which is powered by dimethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide stable gas—went missing earlier this yr.
Now, plainly the propellant tanks have been discovered. However, the publication says, the tanks had been recovered in a dismal state, crushed, alongside steel scraps in a landfill. Someone, apparently, had trashed the tanks. This is a slightly massive downside for Avio, as this was to be the ultimate Vega rocket launched, and the manufacturing traces at the moment are closed for this {hardware}.
The mission
This Vega rocket is because of launch the 1,250-kg BIOMASS satellite tv for pc for the European Space Agency, a mission that can make use of a P-band artificial aperture radar to evaluate the well being of forests on Earth and decide how they’re altering. The satellite tv for pc is valued at greater than $200 million.
It’s the type of mission the Vega rocket was created for. First launched in 2012, the Vega rocket has a raise capability of a bit greater than 2 metric tons to low-Earth orbit. This makes it a bit extra highly effective than small-lift rockets, however it’s not likely a medium-lift car. It has about one-tenth the raise capability of a Falcon 9 rocket, for instance.
One massive downside for Vega is its value. While the car’s marketer, Arianespace, doesn’t publicly publish costs, a Vega launch prices roughly $35 million to $40 million. This was barely aggressive a decade in the past when the car debuted. Now it is out-of-bounds with a brand new era of small launch corporations that supply decrease costs, or the extra dependable Falcon 9, which solely prices about 50 p.c extra for rather more raise capability.
Another problem has been reliability. The Vega rocket had suffered two failures in its final seven launches and has a lifetime failure charge of 10 p.c throughout 21 launches.
Avio developed the marginally bigger Vega C rocket, which can also be solid-fueled, to supply extra raise and reliability at a comparable value. The Vega C rocket made its debut in 2022 with a hit. But on its second mission in December 2022, the second stage failed. The Vega C is not going to return to flight till at the least a yr from now.
No nice choices
Because of the continuing points with the Vega C rocket, the European Space Agency actually has no different home choices in the close to time period for getting its BIOMASS satellite tv for pc into house. The Ariane 6 rocket is not going to make its debut for at the least six months, and it has a prolonged backlog and would at the least double the launch prices. It’s uncertain that European officers will wish to flip to SpaceX and its Falcon 9, both.
So what’s going to Avio do? According to European Spaceflight, officers are engaged on two choices. The first entails utilizing previous propellant tanks that had been constructed for qualification assessments of the Avio rocket greater than a decade in the past. There are 4 such tanks, and the corporate may topic two of them to re-qualification assessments and, if these assessments go effectively, make use of the opposite two tanks for the launch. Understandably, engineers have some considerations in regards to the integrity of those tanks, which in addition to their age had been by no means meant to fly.
Another choice is to switch the higher stage that’s utilized by the Vega C rocket. While there are some commonalities between the Vega and Vega C higher levels, there are variations, and the brand new AVUM+ higher stage was not meant to fly on the unique Vega rocket. It stays to be seen whether or not the European Space Agency is keen to assist the launch of its precious satellite tv for pc on such a kludged-together rocket.