The Independent Inquiry Commission tasked with analysing the loss of the Vega-C Flight VV22 mission, will share its findings on Friday 3 March 2023 at ESA’s Headquarters in Paris.

Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director General and Stéphane Israël, CEO of Arianespace, will jointly present the results of the investigation at 10:00 CET, in the presence of:

• Giovanni Colangelo, ESA Inspector General and co-chair of the Independent Inquiry Commission;

• Pierre-Yves Tissier, Chief Technical Officer of Arianespace and co-chair of the Independent Inquiry Commission;

• Giulio Ranzo, CEO of Avio;

• Daniel Neuenschwander, ESA Director of Space Transportation.

The failure of Vega-C Flight VV22, which was carrying Pléiades Neo 5 and 6 satellites, was announced shortly after its launch on 20 December 2022 at 22:47 local time in French Guiana (03:47 CET/02:47 GMT, 21 December).

Arianespace and ESA immediately set up an independent inquiry commission to analyse the reasons for the loss of the mission, and to define the measures to be taken to ensure all requisite safety and reliability conditions are met for the resumption of Vega-C flights.

Programme (times in CET)

Friday, 3 March 2023

09:30   Doors open

10:00   Beginning of the press conference and presentation of the Independent Inquiry Commission’s findings.

Question-and-answer session.

10:45   End

Accreditation

The press conference will take place as a hybrid event in ESA headquarters in Paris:

ESA HQ Bertrand
24 rue du Général Bertrand
CS 30798
75345 Paris CEDEX 7
France

Media representatives are invited to register at the following link:

https://blogs.esa.int/forms/esa-media-briefing-form the latest by Monday 27 February 2023. Please indicate if you are planning to attend on site or remotely. Afterwards, media will receive additional information and the link to join the interactive online session in case they wish to participate online (WebEx platform).

The press conference will also be streamed at esawebtv.esa.int, but only registered media will be able to ask questions.

About Arianespace

Arianespace uses Space to make life better on Earth by providing launch services for all types of satellites into all orbits. It has orbited over 1,100 satellites since 1980. Arianespace is responsible for operating the new-generation Ariane 6 and Vega C launchers, developed by ESA, with respectively ArianeGroup and Avio as industrial primes. Arianespace is headquartered in Evry, near Paris, and has a technical facility at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana, plus local offices in Washington, D.C., Tokyo and Singapore. Arianespace is a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, which holds 74% of its share capital, with the balance held by 15 other shareholders from the Ariane and Vega European launcher industry, and ESA and CNES as censors.

www.arianespace.com

About the European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.

ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia are Associate Members.

ESA has established formal cooperation with four Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.

By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.

Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int

For further information

Arianespace:

Gregory Gavroy

Email: g.gavroy@arianespace.com

Cyrielle Bouju

Email: c.bouju@arianespace.com

ESA Newsroom and Media Relations Office:

Adelina Campos de Carvalho

Email: media@esa.int