The European Space Agency is grappling with several issues this summer that could temporarily deprive Europe of access to space. ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher said at a press conference on January 23 that space shuttle problems, including the December failure of Vega C and the Ariane 6 launch delay, are among his biggest concerns as we enter the new year.

“This is one of the biggest problems we have in Europe today, let me be clear with you,” he said of space transport. This is a combination of the Vega failure and Ariane 6 delays, as well as the loss of a Soyuz rocket last year due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the decommissioning of the Ariane 5, with its final launch scheduled for June.

“As of the middle of this year, European launch vehicles are not guaranteed to reach Europe, and that’s a huge problem for all of us,” he said. “We really need to work on this to guarantee Europe’s access to space again.”

He said the investigation into the December 20 Vega C launch failure was ongoing. While he and other ESA officials did not provide new technical information about the malfunction at the briefing, he continued to say that the malfunction was related to the rocket’s second stage. Aschbacher said the investigation is expected to conclude in the second half of February.

ESA did not estimate how long it would take to return the Vega C to flight. However, ESA’s director of space transportation, Daniel Neuenschwander, said it may be possible to resume Vega flights first, as the second stage of Vega C is different from the stage used on the original Vega. Arianespace previously reported that two versions of Vega remain, with about a dozen more using the newer Vega C.

Aschbacher said “the top priority” is to get the Vega C back in flight as soon as possible “but under the right conditions”, noting the two Vega failures that preceded the December Vega C failure.

As ESA investigates the Vega C malfunction, Ariane 6 enters the final stages of testing. This includes a hot-fire test of the rocket’s Vinci auxiliary engine on January 20 at a facility in Lampoldshausen, Germany. This test took more than 900 seconds and tested both the engine and the auxiliary power unit of the upper stage.

“This allowed us to fully test the new upper stage under nominal conditions,” Neuenschwander said. Said. He said future tests will test stage performance in “degraded” conditions.

Tests are also ongoing at the launch site to check the launch vehicle’s integration with ground equipment. Electrical testing is currently ongoing and fluid coupling testing is scheduled for March. Hot tests of the Vulcain 2.1 engine used in the first stage of the Ariane 6 will follow.

Last fall, ESA announced plans to launch the Ariane 6 for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2023. Aschbacher stuck to that timeline at the briefing, but said it’s too early to give a more specific launch date.

While ESA deals with the Vega C and Ariane 6, the agency is also looking for ways to support commercial development of small launch vehicles in Europe. Aschbacher said the agency has asked the Agency’s Space Transport Directorate to evaluate potential competitions to fly ESA payloads on these rockets and to award prizes before the vehicles are launched for the first time.

He said ESA will continue to wait for the spacecraft to make a successful flight before launching the satellites, but may sign those launch contracts sooner for two reasons. “For one, it will really accelerate their development,” he said, “and at the same time give them confidence that they have a core customer willing to fly with them.”

Europe continues to struggle with the loss of the Soyuz rocket. This led ESA to announce in October that it would instead launch the Euclidean astrophysics mission, originally scheduled to launch aboard a Soyuz spacecraft aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Aschbacher said the launch is scheduled for the third quarter of this year, likely in July.

There were reports that Russia and France are in talks to return Soyuz rocket thrusters to French Guiana, presumably in exchange for 36 OneWeb satellites stored on Baikonur after Russia canceled the Soyuz launch in March 2022. Neuenschwander said there are “two and a half” Soyuz boosters in French Guiana.

Aschbacher declined to comment on reports that Soyuz boosters would potentially be replaced by OneWeb satellites, citing it as a problem for the governments of Russia and France.

As the Soyuz is no longer launching from French Guiana, what to do with the Soyuz launch pad funded by European governments is a question. Neuenschwander said one option is to turn it into a launch pad for small launch vehicles. He also said that it can only be used as a composition. Source