Start still possible in 2023?
It was December 20, 2022 when, 151 seconds after launch, the Zefiro 40 engine in the second stage of the new Vega-C rocket began to experience problems. The pressure dropped inexorably. So much so that 207 seconds after launch there was no more thrust – and the rocket just followed a ballistic trajectory like a fired bullet. The emergency protocol left no other option than to blow up the rocket to be on the safe side. Two new Earth observation satellites from Airbus Space and Defense were lost in the process. And one question above all arose: How did the error of the Vega-C come about, which had completed its successful and, above all, problem-free maiden flight just a few months earlier, in July?
