The Spanish Ministry of Defense lost a satellite in its latest launch. Thus it was disbanded after two months

Spain had no luck with its launch on a Vega rocket. In 2020, a poorly connected cable skewed the European launch pad and destroyed the Spanish SEOSat-Ingenio satellite, a €200 million project funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation. In October 2023, a new failure, this time in satellite deployment, caused the partial loss of the first Spanish satellite constellation: the ANSER mission.

Designed by the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) of the Department of Defense Answer task It is proposed as an array of three nanosatellites to monitor the quality of rivers, reservoirs and lakes in the Iberian Peninsula. However, the primary goal of the mission was to test the concept of a satellite constellation for the first time: a series of small satellites that fly together without using any kind of propulsion, coordinate like a flock of birds and take advantage of the aerodynamic effects of low-Earth orbit.

The difference between a cluster and a constellation of satellites, such as GPS or Starlink, is that the constellation’s satellites fly at a distance and in different orbits to provide the same service in a coordinated way, whereas the cluster’s satellites, such as ANSER, fly above the Earth from The same point to give a complete data set. Each satellite has its role.

What happened to the two orphan moons?

he Vega missile deployment failed It caused the disintegration of two payloads from different missions, including INTA’s ANSER-LEADER nanosatellite, Arianespace confirmed weeks later. The other two Spanish nanosatellites, ANSER-FOLLOWER1 and ANSER-FOLLOWER2, ​​were deployed without problems.

The original idea of ​​INTA was that only the “leader” would be contacted from Earth and would serve as a node to transmit commands and telemetry to his “followers.” However, all three satellites were equipped to communicate with controllers on the ground, so I was able to move forward with one of the orphan satellites acting as the leader.

In general, much of what was designed for three satellites can be tested with two. “For example, they will do a test Negative formation flight strategies “With two satellites instead of three, which is still new and useful,” Cesar Arza, head of INTA’s mission analysis unit, told Xataka.

Without propulsion, satellites fly in a coordinated manner by moving inertia wheels and other moving components. Even with the loss of the satellite, this constellation concept remains practically unexplored territory, so any in-orbit testing that validates ground-based simulations is of great value to INTA’s aerospace engineers.

A new leader is on the way, with preferential ascension

Operating satellites has been difficult from the beginning, not least because of the loss of LEADER. account INTA on its website Who had concerns with FOLLOWER1 after deployment, but was able to reproduce the issue on a ground backup model and submit upgrade software To the satellite to solve it.

Two months later, the ANSER satellites are in good health, their solar panels and batteries are working as expected, and they are in contact with the antennas of the INTA base in Torrejon de Ardoz when they fly overhead.

However, there are still problems to be solved and subsystems to be calibrated before the mission enters service, which is expected to be in early 2024. Very demanding and at the same time very interesting because of all the challenges we face,” Arza admitted.

In parallel with the system operation activities, its assembly is carried out A new satellite called LEADER-S Which will replace the lost satellite. INTA says it will be ready by the end of February, and that the European Commission has already reserved a preferential spot for it to launch in 2024 due to the failure of a previous launch.

Regarding the responsibilities for the loss of the satellite, Arza said: “The investigation is ongoing and we have not yet received any official communication about the progress of the aforementioned investigation from Arianespace.”

ESA’s Vega rockets are manufactured by the Italian company Avio and operated from French Guiana by the French company Arianespace. The deployment failure is believed to have occurred in the distributor, a device attached to the upper stage of the rocket that is responsible for launching the satellites on time. The distributor is manufactured by SAB. Aveo and Ariane Space They are in the process of divorce Since November.

Photos | Inta

In Chataka | The last Vega missile was supposed to take off in April, but Aveo accidentally threw two of its tanks in the trash and they are no longer manufactured.