Posts: 42988 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 07-11-2019 07:32 AM
An Arianespace Vega rocket carrying a United Arab Emirates (UAE) surveillance satellite suffered a failure after lifting off on Wednesday (July 10) from the Guiana Space Center in South America. Arianespace statement:
Flight VV15: Mission failure
Approximately two minutes after the Vega launcher's liftoff from the Spaceport in French Guiana, a launcher anomaly occurred shortly after ignition of the Zefiro 23 second stage – leading to the premature end of the mission.
Data analyses are in progress to clarify the reasons for this failure. An independent inquiry commission will be set up in the coming hours.
The flight was to have lasted 57 minutes from liftoff to separation of the FalconEye1 observation satellite in a Sun-synchronous orbit.
FalconEye1 was the first of two planned spacecraft for the United Arab Emirates' FalconEye satellite system, which was to serve two primary purposes: supporting the needs of this country's armed forces and supplying the commercial market with imagery.
The satellite was produced by Airbus Defence and Space as prime contractor and Thales Alenia Space as co-prime.
posted 07-11-2019 07:32 AM
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