The VEGA worksite

VEGA gains momentum

While the P80-QM is getting ready for its qualification firing on the Solid Propellant Booster test bench (BEAP), the construction site for the Vega launch pad (ZLV) is beginning to emerge a bit further away. All of the manufacturers involved have been combining their efforts in order to meet the schedule and ensure successful completion of this crucial stage.

A 3^rd launch complex at CSG, the ZLV

In the old Ariane ELA1 launch zone, the silver ball of the water reservoir now has a new neighbour: the future launcher gantry and the Vega payload. Using the same principle as for Ariane 4, large beams of galvanised steel are being prepared on the ground before being manipulated by a crane for delicate assembly at a height. The crane, which travels on rails six meters above the ground, will be used to build a structure of about 1,100 tonnes, 44 metres high, consisting of a base and four vertical structures. The last one will include a travelling crane with a hoisting capacity of 40 tonnes, installed on top of it, which will be used to assemble the stages and to place the payload on the launcher. With the second structure currently being assembled, the gantry should be completed by the end of the year. One last point: assembly of the gantry will require about 100,000 bolts…

The worksite, which now covers the whole of the final Vega site, has turned out to be quite complex as the previous site has to be readapted. In fact, it was necessary to dismantle and empty the previous premises while retrieving most of the concrete structures so that they can be adapted for the new project. The Vega Launch Control Centre (CDL) will be installed in premises made available in the Ariane 5 CDL3. Other civil engineering work and work to install air conditioning below ground is underway. Work is also underway to raise the foundations of the launch table as well as those of the concrete supports for four, 55-meter lightening rod masts. The masts should be formally accepted in French Guiana at the end of July.

NB: DLA/SDS is Assistant to the first level customer ESA/IPT for the worksite and VITROCISET is the prime contractor.

Update on the progress made...

On the site VEGA, mounting 4th sector mobile gantry is virtually complete. For these operations, a team of ten operators performed on buckets to more than 40 m above the ground.

Once this phase achieved, trucks and crane will be put in place. Hedging and siding of the building will be raised. This work should be completed by late November.

Teams of civil engineering take advantage of the dry season to make the earthworks needed to carry out the access road to the shooting as well as the foundations of 4 mats "anti-foudre" to protect the launcher.

Finally, workers engaged in the installation of refractory concrete in the flues.

They are some fifty operators working on the site.

Some views of the realization of mobile gantry...