Ricerc@Sapienza

Vega is the ESA launch vehicle designed to inject small satellites into Low Earth Orbit. It is a 3 m-diameter single-body vehicle, standing 30 m tall with a lift-off mass of 137metric tonnes. It has three solid-propellant stages and a liquid-propellant upper module for attitude and orbit control, and satellite release. Following Vega maiden flight on 13 February 2012, ESAs Verta (Vega Research and Technology Accompaniment) programme was set up with the main objective of providing a framework for the smooth transition of Vega launch system from development to exploitation.

An independent assessment of the steady-state and tail-off ballistic performance of the first static firing test of Zefiro 40 DM solid rocket motor has been performed. The analysis is carried out with a post-firing 0D quasi-steady performance reconstruction model, developed for the purpose and already used for the analysis of SRM SFTs.