“A new attempt is planned tomorrow, December 5, at 6:20 p.m. Guyana time”, or 10:20 p.m. Belgian time, specifies Cnes.
Initially planned for Tuesday, the firing had already been postponed for the first time to allow “additional checks on the electrical connections in the upper stage”, according to Toni Tolker-Nielsen, director of space transport at the European Space Agency (ESA).
After the success of the inaugural flight of the Ariane 6 rocket in July, which allowed Europe to regain access to space, eyes are now fixed on the small Vega C launcher, which must transport the Sentinel satellite. 1C for the European Union’s Copernicus Earth observation programme.
The first commercial mission of Vega C in December 2022 ended in failure causing the loss of two Airbus satellites, while Europe was already deprived of Soyuz after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and in the waiting for Ariane 6.
The decision to return Vega C to the mission was taken after conclusive tests of the Zefiro-40 engine, which equips the second stage of the launcher and whose failure was the cause of the failure. It has since been redesigned.
