Posted on 11/19/2020 2:19:08 PM PST by BenLurkin
An Arianespace Vega rocket carrying two satellites failed to reach orbit yesterday after experiencing a catastrophic failure eight minutes into the launch. Officials are attributing the loss of the rocket to a “series of human errors.”
Vega Flight VV17 started off well, with the 98-foot-tall (30-meter) rocket departing the Guiana Space Center at 8:52 p.m. ET. The first three stages, all powered by solid-fuel, did their job, propelling the vehicle and its cargo over the Atlantic ocean toward space. It was when the liquid-fueled upper stage kicked in that things went sideways.
According to satellite launch company Arianespace, the trouble began around the eight-minute mark of the mission. At that point, the upper stage, called AVUM (Attitude and Vernier Upper Module), correctly detached itself and ignited, in what was supposed to be the first of four consecutive rocket burns. Immediately after the first ignition, however, AVUM went off course, never to recover. The upper stage and its cargo—the Spanish SEOSAT-Ingenio Earth observation satellite and the French TARANIS atmospheric observation satellite—plunged into an uninhabited area, said an Arianespace statement.
Arianespace said future launches, including three scheduled for later this year, shouldn’t be affected by this latest setback. Speaking at the press conference, Stéphane Israël, chief executive of Arianespace, said yesterday’s accident is unrelated to the failed Vega launch from July 10, 2019, in which an imaging satellite belonging to the United Arab Emirates was lost. Arianespace attributed that incident to
Incidents involving space and human errors are rare, but they do happen. Some notorious examples include the loss of NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999 due to the engineering team’s failure to convert imperial measurements to metric and a recent air leak on the ISS attributed to shoddy workmanship (or possibly sabotage).
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What do you think would happen when you name rocket after the failed Chevy Vega.
Cheap crappy car made from other models parts and systems. Well maybe it was appropriately named but should have expected the results.
Vega failed launch with FalconEye1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJd7-0GDaBU
Better than the Chevy Nova, which in Spanish means “Don’t Go”.
Hate to be sailing in the South Atlantic and get whacked in the head by a failed Vega rocket falling from the sky.
I can only attribute it to human error. These kinds of things have cropped up before, Dave, and they have always been due to human error.
Put the control wire on backwards so turning left turns it to the right ,D’oh
i thought it meant “call your mechanic”
Step away from the keyboard.
The only thing that matters is if the Vega people had the correct quota of trannies, minorities, LBGQT-LSMFTs
Next time, go with SpaceX.
Man, that’s fast! That thing took off… like a rocket!
Perhaps Arianespace is a bit out of practice in the launch business.
the Nova is a muscle car that my brother-in-law races. Does quite well, or least while t=he was active in racing.
They should have flown Spacex! (just sayin...)
“This can only be attributed to Human Error” / HAL9000
It is best France stays clear of manned launches.
After all is said and done, it IS Rocket Science!
In the launch sequence, generally 95% success is a minimum requirement. Example was the Apollo 13 Launch had a premature shutdown of the center engine of 5 and was not fatal because the other 4 were kept burning a little longer. Their near fatal problem came later but was not from a Saturn failure.
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