Crucial Rocket Parts End Up Crushed in a Landfill, Imperiling Satellite Mission

The final foreign mission of the European Space Agency ’s Vega roquette has meet a bizarre reverse . Key propellent tanks required for its last trajectory were get hold damaged in a landfill , jeopardizing the scheduled 2024 launch .

It ’s usual for wallets to go missing . Same for car keys and nomadic phones . It happens . But for two propellent tankful belonging to a 98 - foot - tall projectile to go missing ? That ’s exceedingly foreign .

The two tanks belong to to a bent of four , and they ’re needed to power the Vega AVUM quaternary stage . Avio , the Italy - establish company responsible for for assembling the Vega rocket , lost course of the piece in October , accordingto European Spaceflight . The tanks were after determine crushed and unusable in a landfill , presenting a strange and unwelcome challenge in get the skyrocket quick for its final flying .

A Vega C rocket ahead of launch.

A Vega C rocket ahead of launch.Photo: ESA

The AVUM fourth leg is powered by a Ukraine - built liquid - fire engine , which trust on four spherical army tank for its propellant . They ’re usually stored in Avio ’s production section in Colleferro , which latterly underwent renovations . For some reasonableness , the missing tanks were not recorded in Avio ’s company - wide asset management organisation , work recovery cause particularly intriguing , European Spaceflight report .

The final Vega flight , set tolaunchfrom Europe ’s Spaceport in Kourou , French Guiana , in the first half of 2024 , aims to deploy ESA ’s Biomass Earth observation satellite . This project , initiated in 2016 with Airbus Defence and Space U.K. , require the 2,756 - hammering ( 1,250 - kilogram)Biomass satelliteequipped with a atomic number 15 - band semisynthetic aperture radar to study Earth ’s forests . However , due to the current situation , Avio is unlikely to meet its commitment to launch on schedule .

Faced with the absence of replacement tanks , as Vega product stock are shut down ( the projectile is being retired ) , Avio is considering two option , according to European Spaceflight . One regard using older armored combat vehicle from the fomite ’s 2012 making phase , raising concerns about their wholeness . The other is change the AVUM upper stagecoach for Vega ; as European Spaceflight allege , “ This Frankenstein solution , which would use component of a Vega C AVUM+ stage , would be completely unproved . ” Indeed , in spades not something to mess around with when you ’ve got a $ 247 million satellite on the line .

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As for ESA ’s approaching Ariane 6 rocket , that wo n’t establish until June or July 2024 at the early , and , having been delay , faces a tenacious backlog of customers wanting to get their precious cargo into space . ESA could tap SpaceX for its Falcon 9 rocket , but it ’s not open if that ’s a workable choice . As to when the Biomass artificial satellite might launch and how , these are now very pertinent questions .

Avio ’s relationship with ESA has become strained , particularly follow thefailed Vega C launching in December 2022 . The failure was ascribe to a component made by the Ukrainian companionship Yuzhnoye , spark criticism from the Ukrainian governmentand examination within the European outer space industry . This incident brought to lightconcerns about Avio ’s lineament control and decision - making processes . Several failures , including one in November 2020 due to human erroneous belief , underscore these worries . what is more , Avio ’s fiscal conclusion , such as stock repurchase follow solid funding from the European Investment Bank and Italy ’s Covid recovery fund , have also been questioned .

In a related ontogeny , ESA member latterly approved Avio ’s asking to severally commercialise and manage Vega C launching , move away from the original requirement that Arianespace superintend these launches . A new track is set for Avio to make a great wallop in the European market , but for that to happen , it ’ll need to get its act together , and in especial , learn how to keep track of its rocket parts .

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