/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15783549

https://spacenews.com/esa-delays-vega-c-return-to-flight-to-late-2024/
> ESA delays Vega C return to flight to late 2024
> WASHINGTON — The return to flight of Europe’s Vega C small launch vehicle has slipped to late 2024 after the European Space Agency concluded a rocket motor nozzle needs to be redesigned.
> ESA announced Oct. 2 the completion of an independent investigation into an anomaly that took place during a static-fire test of a Zefiro 40 motor June 28. That test was part of efforts to return the Vega C to flight after a December 2022 launch failure blamed on that motor.
> Giovanni Colangelo, ESA’s inspector general and chair of the committee that investigated the incident, said at a briefing that the performance of the motor was “more or less normal” until 39.7 seconds after ignition. At that point, a new throat insert made of carbon-carbon material was expelled from the nozzle, along with other pieces of the nozzle. The motor continued to burn, although at far lower pressures, until the fuel was exhausted.
> The test was intended to confirm the performance of the throat insert, which prime contractor Avio had replaced as part of the recommendations into the December 2022 launch failure. That investigation, released in March, concluded that carbon-carbon material from the original supplier, Ukrainian company Yuzhnoye, did not meet specifications. ArianeGroup now supplies the throat insert. At the time ESA hoped to resume Vega C flights by the end of 2023.
> Before the Vega C return to flight will be two launches of the original version of the Vega, which does not use the Zefiro 40 motor. The first is scheduled for Oct. 6, and will place into orbit the THEOS-2 Earth observation satellite for Thailand, the FORMOSAR-7R/TRITON radio occultation satellite for Taiwan and 10 smallsat second payloads.