Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: Europe’s new Vega-C rocket was lost shortly after the launch from French Guiana overnight with two satellites on board, in the latest setback to European space efforts.
The flop show on Tuesday night threatens to ground the Vega-C, which would leave the continent without a short-term way to send satellites into orbit after delays to the Ariane 6 rocket and canceled Russia’s cooperation over its Ukraine aggression.
Rocket in mission to take two satellites into orbit
The rocket had been trying to take into orbit two Earth observation satellites built by Airbus, which were intended to add to an existing network capable of capturing high-quality pictures of any point on the globe many times a day.
If it had been a success, it would have been the first commercial launch of the Vega-C since its inaugural trip on 13 July.
The head of the commercial launch service provider Arianespace, Stephane Israel said in a statement that the mission is lost.
According to Arianespace, ten minutes after the launch, at 10:47 pm local time (0147 GMT Wednesday), the launcher’s trajectory deviated from its route, and communications were lost.
The rocket was lift-off over the Atlantic Ocean and had shot past 100km altitude and was over 900km north of Kourou.
