Falcon Eye 1

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Falcon Eye 1
Country: United Arab EmiratesUnited Arab Emirates United Arab Emirates
Operator: Armed Forces of the United Arab Emirates
Mission dates
Dimensions: 1197 kg
Begin: July 11, 2019, 01:53 UTC
Starting place: Guiana Space Center
Launcher: Vega
Status: destroyed
Orbit data
Track height: 611 km SSE (planning)

Falcon Eye 1 (" Falcon Eye 1 ") was an earth observation and reconnaissance satellite of the United Arab Emirates . It was destroyed when attempting to launch a Vega missile on July 11, 2019. It was the first false start of the Italian- made rocket after fourteen successful launches. With 369 million euros in damages, it is also the most expensive insured event in the history of space travel.

satellite

Falcon Eye 1 was a further development of the French Pléiades earth observation satellites. Like this, it was built by Airbus Defense and Space on the basis of the AstroSat-1000 satellite bus . The payload - a camera system with a resolution of 70 centimeters and an observation width of 20 kilometers - came from Thales Alenia Space .

The AstroSat bus has four hydrazine- operated small engines and three solar modules for power supply. Falcon Eye 1 was designed to last for five years.

There is an identical sister satellite Falcon Eye 2 , which should also start with a Vega at the end of 2019, but was then rebooked for a later flight with a Soyuz-ST .

begin

Vega flight VV15 with Falcon Eye 1 took off from the Guiana Space Center on July 11, 2019 at 3:53 a.m. CEST . Thereafter, the satellite should be placed in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 611 kilometers.

The flight initially went smoothly. 131 seconds after the start or 14 seconds after the ignition of the Z23 solid propulsion engine of the second rocket stage, a “sudden violent event” occurred on the engine. As a result, the second stage separated from the rest of the missile, which was now without a drive and went off course. Almost four minutes after takeoff and more than 400 kilometers from the coast, the rocket self-destructed as a precaution.

Reactions to the false start

In a first written statement, the Vega operator Arianespace announced that an "anomaly" had occurred shortly after the second stage was ignited. A commission to investigate the accident will be set up together with ESA .

Giulio Ranzo, CEO of the rocket manufacturer Avio , apologized in a video message to his customers and shareholders . An investigation into the incident has been initiated jointly with ESA, Arianespace and the French space agency CNES .

Mohammad al-Ahbabi, head of the United Arab Emirates ' space agency, expressed confidence in his country's space program and confirmed the planned launch date for Falcon Eye 2 with another Vega rocket. However, this launch was later transferred to a Soyuz rocket.

Cause and consequences of the accident

What exactly happened to the engine of the second rocket stage could not be determined. According to the investigation report of September 5, 2019, the most likely cause was a “thermal-structural failure” at the front end of the engine, i.e. a burn through the engine housing at the end of the second rocket stage, which is connected to the third stage. A review of this assumption through tests and "corrective measures on all subsystems, processes and equipment" were announced. Two Vega launches planned for 2019 - Arianespace's first dedicated Rideshare mission and the launch of Falcon Eye 2 - have been postponed to 2020.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b VV15 - Falcon Eye 1. (PDF; 0.3 MB) Arianespace, July 2019, accessed on July 15, 2019 (English).
  2. a b c Stephen Clark: UAE military satellite lost in Vega launch failure. In: Spaceflight now. July 11, 2019, accessed on July 15, 2019 .
  3. Munich Re among Insurers for Vega rocket, UAE satellite. Reuters, July 12, 2019, accessed July 15, 2019 .
  4. a b Caleb Henry and Brian Berger: Arianespace aims to return Vega to flight in early 2020 after investigation pins July failure on rocket's second stage. In: Spacenews. September 5, 2019, accessed September 5, 2019 .
  5. a b Falcon Eye 1, 2. In: Gunter's Space Page. Retrieved July 15, 2019 .
  6. UAE to launch Falcon Eye satellite in July. In: The National . June 27, 2019, accessed July 15, 2019 .
  7. a b Janice Ponce de Leon: UAE's space program: 'UAE to come back stronger with the launch of Falcon Eye 2 soon'. In: Gulf News. July 14, 2019, accessed on July 15, 2019 .
  8. Caleb Henry: UAE's Falcon Eye 2 satellite switched from Vega to Soyuz . Spacenews, January 13, 2020.
  9. a b Vega Flight VV15: Findings of the Independent Inquiry Commission's investigations. Arianespace, September 5, 2019, accessed September 5, 2019 .
  10. Facebook post by the Guiana Space Center, July 12, 2019 (French).
  11. Arianespace announced today, July 11, 2019, the failure of Flight VV15 carrying the FalconEye1 satellite. Arianespace, July 11, 2019, accessed July 15, 2019 .
  12. Vega Flight VV15: Giulio Ranzo CEO of Avio. ( YouTube video) Avio, July 11, 2019, accessed July 15, 2019 .