Colleferro (Rome), 28 May 2024 – The Zefiro-40 solid rocket motor, the second stage of the Vega C rocket, was tested on 28 May by Vega-C prime contractor Avio at its Salto di Quirra test facility in Sardinia, Italy. The motor featured an improved engine nozzle design, required to prepare for a Vega-C return-to-flight by the end of 2024.

Avio has now competed the first five firing tests of DM2 model of M10, the 100kn thrust liquid oxygen/methane engine that will power the upper stage of the Vega E launcher. Optimal performance achieved in 45sec tests at max pressure and Ox rich mixture ratio. Now we are ready to prepare long duration and variable thrust firings.

Colleferro, 6 May 2022 – The new M10 oxygen/methane engine for Vega E was successfully tested yesterday at Avio's new Space Propulsion Test Facility (SPTF) at the Salto di Quirra range in Sardinia. The engine developed by Avio, with a thrust class of 10 tons, is the first of its kind to be successfully tested in Europe.

• Success of the third and final static test fire of the P120C rocket motor, lasting 130 seconds, at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana
• The P120C solid rocket motor will act as side boosters for Ariane 6 as well as being the Vega C first stage
• For this last test before maiden flight, the motor was in the Ariane 6 configuration, as the P120C will equip both configurations

The test was performed at the presence of the Undersecretary of Defense Hon. Giulio Calvisi who then visited the construction site of the new SPTF industrial site for space activities in Perdasdefogu, Sardinia

Cagliari, 1st October 2020. The qualification test of the Zefiro 9 VT3 engine, an advanced version of the third stage propulsion system already in use on the Vega launcher and specifically enhanced and customized for the new Vega C, was successfully completed this morning in view of the maiden flight scheduled for 2021.

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.

Firing test of the Solid Rocket Motor (MPS) of the Ariane 5 booster in Kourou, French Guiana, concluded successfully. This was the sixth firing test of ARTA (Accompagnement et Recherche Technologique Ariane), an ESA programme that has the objective of maintaining the qualification status of the Ariane 5 launch system.