Mission failure. 8 minutes after liftoff of Vega mission VV17, following the first ignition of the engine of the Avum upper stage, a deviation of trajectory was identified, entailing the loss of the mission.

Telemetry data analyses are in progress to determine the cause of this failure.

"This failure of Vega reminds us once more that we are in a tough business and that the line betweensuccess and failure is a very fine one indeed. Our teams shall now be getting straight down to work toanalyse, understand and fix the causes of the failure so that we can resume flights as soon as possible." Jean - Yves Le Gall, CNES President.
Source: CNES