05/09/2019 (Agence Europe) – On Thursday, 5 September, the independent inquiry commission (IIC) presented its findings on the failure of the Vega launcher flight in July. “Their work on identifying the causes of the Flight VV15 anomaly, and the well-defined actions to be carried out from now until the end of the year, will pave the way for a resumption of Vega launches as from the first quarter of 2020, under the requisite conditions of reliability,” Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël was pleased to say. According to the inquiry commission, an anomaly can be traced back to the forward dome of the engine. Based on this information, the IIC has proposed an action plan providing for an exhaustive verification of its findings and analyses as well as a set of corrective actions on all relevant subsystems, processes, and equipment concerned. The incident had caused concern in the European space sector, which is losing market share in the face of international competition (see EUROPE 12275/18). (PH)