The company behind the first commercial launch of the Vega-C light satellite launcher rocket on Wednesday said it had lost the rocket soon after takeoff from French Guiana's  Kourou Space Center.

Arianespace's rocket was on a mission to put two Earth-observation satellites into orbit as part of a yearslong project to gather high-quality images for military and civilian purposes.

The failure — and possible grounding of Vega-C — threatens to leave the European Space Agency (ESA) with no short-term way to launch satellites after canceled Russian cooperation and delays in the rollout of the Ariane 6 rocket.

What went wrong?

Arianespace said the rocket veered off course less than three minutes after launch. The company said an "anomaly occurred" in the second stage of the rocket.

"Data analyses are in progress to determine the reasons of this failure," the company said.

It was not initially clear whether the Vega-C's destruction device was activated or whether it fell into the sea.

"Unfortunately, we can say that the mission is lost," said Arianespace CEO Stephane Israel.

Italian Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said a commission would be set up to investigate the failure of the launcher.

Urso said he was confident that the launches would resume and that the incident would not "cloud the excellent work done by Italian and European companies."

The Pleiades Neo Earth observation satellites, built by Airbus, would have joined two satellites to form a network that captures super high-resolution images of any point on the globe several times a day.

Mishap adds to woes

The failure is a significant setback for ESA, which is responsible for European launcher programs. The launch of another lightweight Vega rocket in 2019 also failed because of an anomaly soon after liftoff.

ESA's hopes had hinged on the Ariane 6 rocket, but its inaugural flight was postponed from 2020 to the end of 2023. The European space sector has also suffered a blow after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and sanctions imposed by the European Union.

In response, Moscow suspended launches of its Soyuz rockets from French Guiana and withdrew its technical staff.

In the absence of an alternative, ESA has been forced to turn to SpaceX to launch two scientific missions.

ESA, whose Ariane rocket pioneered commercial launches faces intense competition from rivals such as Elon Musk's SpaceX, which the agency has itself commissioned to launch two scientific satellites.

At an ESA council in November, France, Germany, and Italy announced an agreement for a new-generation European space launcher to better compete with SpaceX and other rocket programs in the US and China.

Arianespace belongs to ArianeGroup, which is a joint enterprise by Airbus and the French engine manufacturer Safran.

rc/sms (AFP, dpa)