Return to flight almost two years since the previous endeavor failed
Arianespace has finally managed to return the Vega-C to flight carrying a Sentinel payload for the European Space Agency (ESA).
After repeated delays, the third Vega-C lifted off from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana on the northeast coast of South America at 2120 UTC on December 5, almost two years to the day after the second launch attempt of the rocket failed due to a second-stage issue.
This time, all went according to plan, and the payload, Sentinel-1C, a radar satellite for ESA's Copernicus program, was placed into a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) at an altitude of 700 km. The spacecraft separated 1 hour and 43 minutes after liftoff.
The arrival of Sentinel-1C is not a moment too soon. The nominal mission for the Sentinel-1 program is to have two satellites flying in the same orbit, but 180 degrees apart, to maximize global coverage. Sentinel-1A is still operational, but Sentinel-1B failed at the end of 2021 and was declared a loss by ESA in 2022.
"The satellite has been successfully de-orbited and will reenter Earth's atmosphere within 25 years," according to ESA.
Sentinel-1A is due to be replaced by Sentinel-1D in 2025.
The December 2022 Vega-C failure was attributed to a problem with the nozzle of the Zefiro-40 second stage. A redesigned nozzle failed during testing in 2023, pushing back the return to flight to 2024.
Another satellite in the Sentinel program, Sentinel-6, was lofted on a SpaceX Falcon 9, and ESA has had to turn to other companies for launches due to the retirement of the Ariane 5, delays with Ariane 6, and the Vega C issues.
On the same day as the latest Vega-C take-off, SpaceX launched a Sirius XM satellite into orbit from Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket. The mission also marked the 100th landing of a Falcon 9 first-stage booster on the Just Read the Instructions droneship. It was the 380th recovery overall as SpaceX nears yet another milestone.
By comparison, the Vega-C mission marked the 351st launch by Arianespace in a considerably longer timeframe.
ESA's Director of Space Transportation, Toni Tolker-Nielsen, said: "Today's launch marks a crucial step forward, reaffirming European independent access to space. With Vega-C back in flight and the inaugural launch of Ariane 6 in July, we are in a great place going forward and I salute all the hard-working teams all over Europe and its spaceport who have worked tirelessly to achieve this success."
Brave words aside, it is difficult not to make comparisons with SpaceX and its reusable Falcon 9 first-stage, or even the steps toward reuse being made by smaller commercial launch suppliers such as Rocket Lab.
The Vega-C has a busy few years ahead of it. While not at SpaceX levels of launch cadence, it is still far greater than the three launches, including one failure, that it has achieved since 2022. ®