Vega Light
While Vega C and the P120 engine it shares with the Ariane 6 strap-on boosters are Avio’s core focus today, the company is actively weighing a scaled-down version of Vega that would compete directly with launchers in development at Virgin Orbit, Rocket Lab and other commercial ventures focused on dedicated missions for payloads weighing a few hundred kilograms or less.
Ettore Scardecchia, Avio’s head of engineering and product development, said Avio has an advantage over newcomers in that the company already has the essential components for a “Vega C Light.”
“Our idea is that if we are able to develop a system that is really a downscale of Vega C, we will have also the economy of scale to guarantee it because we use the same pieces in both cases,” he explained.
Vega C Light would likely forgo the P120 engine, he said. Other modifications would follow to make the Light version work without that stage to launch around 250 kilograms to low Earth orbit.
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Scardecchia said Avio doesn’t know how many Vega C Light missions would occur per year, as the project is still in a study phase, but is confident demand exists. Several customer discussions around Avio’s current launcher family started with operators that first sought rideshares, a secondary position on a rocket to “piggyback” to orbit along the way, he said.
Rideshares give secondary customers little ability to control where exactly their spacecraft are inserted into orbit, and makes them beholden to the schedule of the primary customer. Operators that want specific orbits, need more timely missions, or both, could opt for the Light vehicle, Scardecchia said.
With Vega C Light, Avio and Arianespace would also be able to offer missions to a wider range of inclinations, a perk Scardecchia said is of interest to Earth-observation companies that want their satellites to cover the planet’s more-populated areas. If Avio pursues the mini-launcher, it would want to have the system ready by 2020 or 2021, he said.
SSMS, Space Rider and VENUS
ESA also wants to expand the number of missions Vega and Vega C are capable of performing. In a separate press event the same day, agency officials detailed three programs — all more advanced than Vega C Light — aimed at diversifying Vega missions.