Kourou, 16 July 2018
• A successful test firing of 135 seconds conducted on the BEAP test bench in Kourou, French Guiana
• P120C – the largest monolithic carbon-fiber solid rocket motor (SRM) in the world – is loaded with 142 tons of propellant
• P120C will equip the boosters of both Ariane 62 and Ariane 64 and the Vega-C first stage ; 35 motors to be produced annually
IT WILL BE THE SECOND STAGE OF THE NEW EUROPEAN LAUNCHER VEGA C
Colleferro, 8 March 2018 – Four weeks of preparation, 20 skilled technicians and operators involved, over 500 measurements recorded by the sensors during the 92-second ignition, enough to burn 36 tonnes of solid propellant and generating a thrust 4 times higher than the maximum power developed by the engine of a modern passenger aircraft.
18 September 2017 – Regulus, an Avio/ArianeGroup joint venture, has completed the loading with inert propellant of the first Booster Case of the new P120C Solid Rocket Motor in French Guyana. Regulus is in charge of solid propellant manufacturing and casting for Vega and Ariane Launch Vehicles.
About 142 Tons of inert propellant have been produced and cast in the Booster Case, that was shipped this summer from Avio premises in Italy, to demonstrate and validate new manufacturing equipment, machines and process.
As regards some news published today on the media concerning an alleged agreement signed by Avio on the Vega and Vega C launchers, Avio SPA underlines that such contracts were signed by Arianespace with OHB Italia and Airbus Defence & Space to provide them with the launch service.
NEW P120C SOLID ROCKET MOTOR: FIRST BOOSTER CASE SUCCESSFULLY TESTED
At the eve of the International Paris Air Show at Le Bourget (Paris, France), the operational tests for the first P120C casing were successfully completed at the Avio facility in Colleferro. The P120C is the largest monolithic carbon-fibre solid propellant motor in the world, designed to equip on the new Vega C and Ariane 6 launchers, set for their first launch in 2019 and 2020.
About a hundred of the main European experts in space launchers gathered at Colleferro, near Rome, for a project in which the AVIO Group has a leading role both for the new space motors and especially for the VEGA C orbital launcher.
