Vega flight VV15

Arianespace

Industry	Space launch services
Headquarters	Kourou , French Guiana
Key people	Luce Fabreguettes (Executive Vice President for missions)
Products	Launch services (Vega launch vehicle)

Vega flight VV15 was the Vega launch vehicle's mission that ended in its inaugural failure.

Payload

The flight transported a single payload weighing approximately , with the objective of placing the FalconEye1 satellite into orbit.

FalconEye1

FalconEye1, an Earth observation satellite with high-resolution capabilities, was developed by Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space for the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces (UAEAF). It had a launch mass close to and served as the mission’s only payload.

Launch date

Initially set for 5 June 2019, the launch experienced several postponements due to unfavorable weather conditions. Eventually, liftoff occurred from the ELV site in Kourou, French Guiana, on 11 July 2019 at 01:53:03 UTC.

Planned orbit

The mission’s goal was to deploy the payload into a quasi-circular Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude near , over a duration of 57 minutes and 09 seconds.

Launch log

This operation was Arianespace’s sixth mission in 2019 and marked Vega’s second launch that year. It represented the spacecraft launched by Airbus Defence and Space and Thales Alenia Space through Arianespace.

Initial statements

Approximately nine minutes after liftoff, Luce Fabreguettes, Executive Vice President for missions at Arianespace, indicated that around two minutes post-launch—close to the ignition of the second stage (Zefiro 23)—a critical anomaly led to mission termination. Additional information awaited further analysis.

Arianespace confirmed that the mission ended prematurely shortly after the second stage ignition due to an unexpected anomaly.

Avio reiterated this in their press release and CEO video message, noting that the failure cause was unknown and under thorough investigation.

Inquiry commission

On the day of the incident, Arianespace and ESA established an investigative commission tasked with determining the failure's root causes and proposing solutions to ensure Vega’s safe return to flight. The commission was co-led by ESA’s inspector general Toni Tolker-Nielsen and Arianespace’s CTO Roland Lagier, with participation from representatives of CNES and Avio.

By 4 September 2019, the panel concluded that a thermo-structural failure in the forward dome section of the Z23 motor—caused by excessive heat—was likely responsible:

The Commission identified as the most probable cause of the anomaly a thermo-structural failure within the forward dome area of the Z23 motor. Alternative causes such as unintended activation of the Z23 neutralization system were considered unlikely.

On 6 December 2019, Avio revealed that a deficiency in thermal protection design on the second stage’s forward dome permitted hot gas leakage, triggering the malfunction. The failure mode was successfully reproduced during testing, allowing engineers to implement enhanced thermal shielding alongside other corrective measures.

Aftermath

Avio carried out modifications to strengthen the compromised component and mitigate future risks. Arianespace targeted resuming Vega launches by late March 2020 after nearly nine months without flights, while scheduling Vega C’s inaugural mission for Q2 2020.

Nevertheless, the planned return-to-flight encountered numerous postponements: initially deferred from March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then delayed again until mid-August because of adverse weather and satellite battery recharge requirements. Additional setbacks arose from scheduling conflicts with Ariane flight VA253, sensor malfunctions on Ariane 5, and telemetry tracking disruptions caused by Typhoon Maysak near Jeju station. Ultimately, Vega successfully returned to flight on 3 September 2020 at 01:51:10 UTC after an almost 14-month suspension. As a result, Vega C’s first flight was postponed to early 2021.

Following this failure, the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces chose to cancel FalconEye 2’s planned Vega launch in favor of a more expensive launch aboard a Soyuz rocket.

The FalconEye1 launch mishap generated an unprecedented insurance claim valued at $415 million—the largest ever recorded for a single satellite launch loss.

External links

• Vega Flight VV15 on the Arianespace website (Archived as of 29 June 2019)