At 10:47 PM local time on December 20, the Vega C rocket ignited and ascended into a clear sky over the Guiana Space Centre. Its first stage performed perfectly. At T+2 minutes and 27 seconds, as the rocket was traveling at nearly 4,000 miles per hour, the Zefiro 40 second-stage motor ignited. Pressure immediately began to drop. The vehicle lost control and was destroyed by range safety officers 30 seconds later. The two Pléiades Neo satellites, built by Airbus and valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, fell into the Atlantic Ocean.
The failure was traced to a carbon-carbon throat insert in the Zefiro 40 nozzle. The part eroded more quickly than predicted, causing the catastrophic loss of thrust. This was not a minor glitch but a fundamental design flaw in a component meant to withstand extreme temperatures. The investigation revealed the erosion began a mere seven seconds after the second stage ignited.
The grounding of the Vega C for 15 months was a severe blow to Europe's strategic goal of independent access to space. It left a gap in the continent's launch capabilities, forcing satellite operators to seek rides on American or Indian rockets. The incident underscored the razor-thin margins of rocket science, where a single subcomponent's miscalculation can erase years of work and investment.
The program's return to flight in late 2023 required a complete requalification of the motor and a redesign of the faulty part. The failure served as a costly reminder that in the business of reaching orbit, success is built not just on ambition, but on the precise, predictable behavior of every piece of hardware, no matter how small.