“We are obviously not surprised by these results… it would have been extremely concerning to find out that Earth was not habitable! But they indicate that MAJIS and SWI will work very successfully at Jupiter, where they will help us investigate whether the icy moons could be potential habitats for past or present life.”
Watch the launch of @CopernicusEU#Sentinel2C on #VV24, the last Vega flight from Europe’s Spaceport, live on #ESAwebTV on 4 September from 02:30 BST/03:30 CEST (liftoff scheduled at 02:50 BST/03:50 CEST).
The tech-demo phase of Ariane 6 is still in progress but has shown an unexpected result which will only affect the end of the mission.
On the webcast, they stated that the Auxiliary Propulsion Unit (APU) switched off shortly after it it powered up after SECO-2. Without the APU, they have no way to settle the propellants in the tanks, and thus can’t reignite the upper stage for the final burn.
From the live camera feed, it looks as though the upper stage was spinning, so there may have been some loss of control as well.
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