The Emergency System for VEGA launcher, entirely developed by GTD, has been successfully accepted. The Factory Acceptance took place in GTD premises in March 2008, and the system was accepted and authorized to be transported to Roma (Italy). Integration tests with other control systems will start in Rome in April 2008, and later the system will be transported to the Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana for the on-site integration and qualification tests. GTD will participate in the integration and qualification tests in Italy and French Guiana. The VEGA Emergency System (BCVE) is part of the VEGA Control bench (BCV). Its mission is to ensure that in case of failure of BCV, at human request or nominally after the lift-off, the VEGA launcher and the Ground Process goes to a safe state. In other words, its mission is to guarantee the Fail Safe criteria for the BCV.In order to make the overall BCV system Fail Safe, the Emergency System was designed to be Fail Operational. In the context of the system architecture, this means that the Emergency System has been conceived to support one single fault in any component and continue working to fulfil its mission.Setting the VEGA launcher and the Ground Process in safe state is achieved by the Emergency subsystem, mainly by executing a number of electrical commands that trigger power cut-offs and inhibit dangerous systems, as the pyrotechnical devices of the launcher. Obviously, these automatic command sequences will depend on the launcher and process configuration, defined in the VEGA database.The solution is based on a system that shows the main following architectural traits:· There is a High Level Control System (HLCS) and a Low Level Control System (LLCS). Both Systems are hot-redundant and interconnected through an internal redundant network.· The HLCS is responsible mainly for Man-Machine Interface (MMI), archiving and alarm management. It also includes the emergency Safety Panels and Push Buttons.· The LLCS is responsible for data acquisition and command, event time stamping and handling of the Application Software.· The LLCS is distributed among the Control Center room, the Bunker and the Mobile Gantry, where interfaces must be reached.· Fault tolerance is implemented through redundancy in both system levels, accordingly to the specified Fail Operational criterion.· A separate development station is provided, for maintenance and test. The European small launcher VEGA is being developed as an ESA programme, taking significant advantage of launcher technologies developed previously at European level, particularly in the solid-propulsion and avionics fields. VEGA has been designed to allow a wide range of missions and payload configurations in order to best respond to market expectations: · From one satellite to seven satellites (one main satellite + six micro-sat), a large range of payload configurations· Total Payload mass: up to 2500kg.· From equatorial to polar and Sun Synchronous orbits, a large range of missions The exploitation of this new ESA developed launcher will widen the range of European launch services on offer and will improve launch flexibility by providing a more adapted response for a wide range of European institutional space missions, as well as an optimised family of launchers to serve commercial market needs. For its exploitation, Vega will be operated by Arianespace from the Guiana Space Centre (CSG). This approach will foster additional synergies in the exploitation of ESA-developed launchers from Europe’s Spaceport.
