{"id":12237,"date":"2020-09-03T18:51:58","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T10:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/vega-rocket-deploys-53-satellites-on-successful-return-to-flight-mission\/"},"modified":"2020-09-03T18:51:58","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T10:51:58","slug":"vega-rocket-deploys-53-satellites-on-successful-return-to-flight-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/vega-rocket-deploys-53-satellites-on-successful-return-to-flight-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"Vega rocket deploys 53 satellites on successful return to flight mission"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A 98-foot-tall (30-meter) Vega rocket lifts off from French Guiana on Wednesday night. Credit: ESA\/CNES\/Arianespace \u2013 Photo Optique Video du CSG \u2013 JM Guillon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Delayed a year by a launch failure, the coronavirus pandemic and a stretch of stiff upper level winds this summer, an Italian-made Vega rocket vaulted into orbit from French Guiana on Wednesday night and deployed 53 small satellites from 13 countries to punctuate a flawless return to flight mission.<\/p>\n

The rideshare launch set a record for the most satellites ever flown on a European rocket, and helped validate process changes introduced to resolve the problem on the Vega\u2019s second stage that caused a failure on the launcher\u2019s previous mission.<\/p>\n

The 98-foot-tall (30-meter) rocket lit its solid-fueled first stage at 9:51:10 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0151:10 GMT Thursday), immediately boosting the Vega launcher away from the European-run Guiana Space Center on the northern coast of South America with nearly 700,000 pounds of thrust.<\/p>\n

Heading north into a clear late night sky, the Vega rocket flew downrange over the Atlantic Ocean and shed its first stage around two minutes after liftoff.<\/p>\n

The Vega\u2019s second and third stage Zefiro 23 and Zefiro 9 motors ignited to continue the climb into orbit, followed by four burns of the rocket\u2019s liquid-fueled AVUM fourth stage to place the 53 payloads into two distinct polar orbits 320 miles (515 kilometers) and 329 miles (530 kilometers) above Earth, each tilted at an angle of about 97.5 degrees to the equator.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Europe, it\u2019s the very first time we\u2019ve arranged a so-called rideshare mission,\u201d said Giulio Ranzo, CEO of Avio, the Italian company that builds most of the Vega rocket. \u201cWe\u2019re very happy for this to open up the new market for small satellites for Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The solid-fueled Zefiro 23 second stage on Wednesday night\u2019s mission included improvements designed to address a structural deficiency that led the destruction of a Vega rocket on its previous launch in July 2019.<\/p>\n

The failure last year caused the rocket and its payload \u2014 Falcon Eye 1 military reconnaissance satellite for the United Arab Emirates \u2014 to crash back to Earth in the Atlantic Ocean north of French Guiana.<\/p>\n

Avio said an independent investigation into the July 2019 launch failure concluded super-hot gas from burning solid propellant impinged on the structure of the Vega rocket\u2019s Zefiro 23 second stage, resulting in a \u201cthermo-structural failure\u201d on the second stage\u2019s forward dome.<\/p>\n

The hot gas, which burns at more than 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (3,000 degrees Celsius), damaged or burned through the carbon fiber structure on the second stage. The structural failure led to the in-flight breakup of the launch vehicle with the UAE\u2019s Falcon Eye 1 spy satellite.<\/p>\n

According to Ranzo, Avio\u2019s CEO, investigators determined a \u201cmanufacturing anomaly\u201d slipped through Avio\u2019s quality control checks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had thermal protection (on the second stage) where the thickness was perhaps less than one millimeter short, so we had a very, very tiny deviation that was undetectable to all the quality checks,\u201d Ranzo said in March during an interview with Spaceflight Now.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo what we have done is we have greatly improved the technologies to allow for the manufacturing quality controls \u2014 using not only ultrasound but also digital radiography \u2014 in a much finer way with respect to work we used to do in the past,\u201d Ranzo said.<\/p>\n

Avio pulled hardware from the company\u2019s Zefiro 23 production line in Italy, ran it through the improved quality control checks, and successfully test-fired the rocket motor at a test site in Sardinia.<\/p>\n

Ranzo said Avio also added extra thermal insulation on the Zefiro 23 second stage motor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably not necessary, but we increased the safety margin,\u201d he said in March. \u201cSo we are now approaching the flight with much better comfort with respect to safety.\u201d<\/p>\n

Engineers also modified parts of the Vega\u2019s telemetry, flight safety and self-destruct devices, Ranzo said.<\/p>\n

An independent investigation panel issued 20 recommendations, including 14 mandatory action items that were implemented before the return to flight mission Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The changes made the Vega rocket \u201ceven more robust,\u201d said Roland Lagier, Arianespace\u2019s chief technical officer.<\/p>\n

The 53 spacecraft deployed by the Vega\u2019s AVUM upper stage come from 21 customers in 13 countries, including European Space Agency member states, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Thailand and Israel.<\/p>\n