PARIS — The preliminary conclusion that wrongly installed cables fouled the Vega rocket’s upper stage thrust-vector control and led to the Nov. 16 failure that destroyed two satellites is horrible news for Vega prime contractor Avio SpA and may have repercussions on Avio’s relations with its customers — starting with Arianespace and the European Space Agency (ESA).
The failure destroyed Spain’s Seosat/Ingenio Earth observation satellite and the French government’s Taranis atmospheric science satellite. Both of them were years in the making and whether . . .
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