WASHINGTON -- Avio has signed contracts with the European Space Agency for upgrades to the Vega rocket and its launch facilities, as well as for the launch of an Earth science mission.
The contracts, announced Dec. 18, support work to increase the launch rate of the current Vega C rocket and continue development of an upgraded version, Vega E. Those contracts have a combined value of approximately 350 million euros ($364 million), according to Avio.
One contract will cover work to convert a former Ariane 5 integration building at the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, for use by the Vega C. Currently, the Vega C is assembled on the launch pad, which limits launch rates; the building will allow Avio to perform two launch campaigns in parallel.
"This will greatly enhance capacity," Giulio Ranzo, chief executive of Avio, said in an interview. The company is planning four launches of the Vega C in 2025 using current infrastructure, but he said the new integration building will support an increase to six launches annually in the future.
A second contract with ESA will fund further development of the Vega E, an upgraded version of the rocket. The Vega E retains the Zefiro-40 second-stage motor used on the Vega C but replaces the P120 motor on the first stage with the larger P160. It also replaces the two upper stage stages of the Vega C with a single upper stage, M10, powered by a liquid-oxygen/methane engine.
The contract continues work on the Vega E up to final ground qualification of the rocket. Ranzio said Avio is targeting a first launch of Vega E in 2027 or 2028. He said the Vega E will have improved payload performance -- 3 metric tons to low Earth orbit compared to 2.3 tons for the Vega C -- at the same price.
In addition to the development contracts, Avio signed a contract with ESA for the launch of the agency's Far-infrared Outgoing Radiation Understanding and Monitoring (FORUM) mission. That spacecraft, scheduled for launch in 2027 on a Vega C, will measure emissions by the Earth in far-infrared wavelengths to study the effects of water vapor and ice clouds on climate.
Avio took over marketing of the Vega rocket in the fall as part of a gradual transfer of launch service provider responsibilities from Arianespace to Avio, a process that will run through the end of 2025. While the ESA release described the contract as a "transfer" to Avio, Ranzo said that this was a new contract, the first Avio signed since taking over sales of the Vega.
In addition, he said Avio signed a "deed of transfer" of all the contracts that Arianespace had previously signed for Vega launches to his company. "In one day, we transferred the contracts from Arianespace to us and we signed an entirely new launch services contract."
The contracts were signed nearly two weeks after the Vega C returned to flight with the Dec. 5 launch of the Sentinel-1C satellite for the Copernicus program of Earth science missions jointly run by ESA and the European Commission. That launch took place nearly two years after the previous flight of the rocket failed because of a problem with the nozzle of the Zefiro-40 motor.
Analysis of data from the launch is ongoing, but Ranzo said the vehicle demonstrated "incredibly good" performance on the flight. The altitude of the orbital insertion of Sentinel-1C was accurate to within 100 meters, he said, with "almost no errors" in other orbital parameters, like inclination. "The customer is very happy because their life expectancy is greatly enhanced by having received a very accurate orbital injection."
"This also demonstrated that the vehicle, when it's well manufactured and integrated and all of the materials are good, is a terrific product," he concluded.
Ranzo said the next Vega C launch is projected for the end of March or early April, carrying ESA's Biomass Earth science satellite.