The European Space Agency has announced that it is targeting 15 November for the return to flight of the grounded Avio-built Vega C launch vehicle.
Vega C was grounded following a failed flight in late 2022. The cause of the failure was initially identified as the material utilized for the throat insert of the vehicle’s Zefiro 40 (Z40) second stage. However, a static fire test conducted in June 2023 to validate the fix also failed. The conclusion after this failure was that the entire Z40 nozzle would need to be redesigned, a process that is currently underway.
The announcement of the targeted launch date for the vehicle’s return to flight was made by ESA director of space transportation Toni Tolker-Nielsen during a question and answer session following the director general’s annual press briefing.
“The nominal date is 15 November,” said Tolker-Nielsen. “There is a very detailed plan that is leading to this.” The director of space transportation did, however, add that there was a month of schedule risks that may affect the launch date, summarizing that the launch “should be at least before the end of the year.” Tolker-Nielsen’s final word on the matter was, however, not all that convincing. “We’re pretty sure of that,” he concluded.
In order to return the vehicle to flight, Avio will need to complete the redesign of the Z40 nozzle and two static fire tests of the stage. The two test firings are, according to Tolker-Nielsen, planned for just before and just after the European summer break, which generally occurs between late May and the second half of July.
Despite it being the vehicle’s return to flight, the next Vega C launch will be carrying an important payload. The flight is expected to carry the Sentinel 1C Earth observation satellite to orbit, which will replace the failed Sentinel 1B satellite, plugging a significant data gap. However, the decision has not yet been finalised.
“The baseline currently is that we launch on Vega C,” which is foreseen in Q4 2024,” explained ESA director of Earth observation Simonetta Cheli. “And the [European] Commission will be assessing all elements in the coming days and weeks. We’ll take a final decision considering a backup option of Falcon 9.”
