European Space Company Arianespace signed an agreement with the general contractor Vega and Vega C on the production of a batch of ten new Vega C missiles, launch which will start in 2023.
The agreement was signed in Rome on March 19, 2021 by Arianespace CEO Stefan Israel and AVIO CEO Giulio Ranzo during a meeting between French Minister of Economy, Finance and Reconstruction Bruno Le Meur and Italian Minister of Economic Development Giancarlo Giorgetti.
With these long-term deliveries, Arianespace is starting its order for a fourth batch of Vega launch vehicles, the first of which consists only of upgraded Vega C launch vehicles, ”said Stefan Israel, CEO of Arianespace.
As you know, the RD-843 main engine is used as part of the fourth stage of the European launch vehicle, which was developed by Yuzhny Design Bureau and is manufactured at the Yuzhny Machine-Building Plant. A. M. Makarova ".
The RD-843 main engine block is manufactured at Yuzhmash under a contract with AVIO (Italy) and is supplied to the customer for subsequent installation on the fourth stage of the Vega LV (aka the AVUM upper stage).
Recall that the Vega launch vehicle is launched from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana. The first launch took place on February 13, 2012. 17 launches were carried out. Of these, 15 are successful. During the last launch on November 17, 2020 an accident occurred during the operation of the 4th stage. However, as the investigation showed, the Ukrainian missilemen are not to blame for this. During the assembly phase of the launch vehicle, the thrust vector control cable was incorrectly connected.
In addition, last week the German rocket factory in Augsburg announced that its first launch vehicle, RFA One, will be able to launch 1.2 tons into polar orbit, by replacing engines with Ukrainian RD-809K or RD-870.
RFA decided not to develop its own engine, but to purchase it from Yuzhmash. Thus, one can hope that the Dnieper rocket designers will be provided with orders for some time.
