PLD Space unveiled an aggressive 10-year plan last month at the company’s new headquarters building in Elche, Spain. This plan will begin by upgrading its under-development Miura 5 rocket with propulsive landing capability, which will aid in introducing a whole new family of rockets.
This new family of rockets, Miura NEXT, would be partially reusable, ranging from medium-lift to heavy-lift. The company’s plan would culminate with the development of a reusable space capsule to transport cargo and people to and from orbit by the mid-2030s.
Miura 1 and Miura 5
PLD Space’s unveiling event, which was nicknamed “BEYOND,” was held in commemoration of the company’s one year anniversary since its Miura 1 rocket flew for the first and only time.
That flight, which took place from a launch pad at the military base in El Arenosillo, Spain, was a resounding success, crossing off all of the established goals for the suborbital technology demonstrator.
Second Miura 1 flight article, which never flew, hanging from the ceiling at the lobby of PLD Space’s new headquarters building. (Credit: Alejandro Alcantarilla for NSF)
The company has since switched gears to its larger Miura 5 rocket which it has been developing for the last few years. During the event, PLD Space CEO Raúl Torres gave an update on this progress.
While the Miura 1 vehicle was powered by a pressure-fed kerosene-fueled engine called TEPREL-B, the Miura 5 rocket will be powered by five TEPREL-C engines on the first stage and one vacuum-optimized TEPREL-C engine on the second stage.
The TEPREL-C is an open cycle, gas generator engine burning biokerosene with liquid oxygen producing 190 kilonewtons of thrust. This biokerosene is similar in composition to regular kerosene with the difference that it is produced from renewable sources.
Torres explained during the event that the company had spent the better part of the year testing the new turbopump assembly that will power the TEPREL-C engine. During the event, the company also showed off samples of already-built combustion chambers and nozzle assemblies for this engine.
TEPREL-C fuel pump showed at PLD Space’s BEYOND event. (Credit: PLD Space)
PLD Space hopes to start qualification testing for the turbopumps of the first and second stages this month at its test site in Teruel. This will then lead to full engine testing in early 2025 with development ending after the summer. In a private press tour held before the event, Torres explained that by October 2025 the company hopes to have all component testing complete saying “that’s the goal that everyone has in the back of their mind.”
This would then be followed with testing at the launch pad by the end of the year in French Guiana. This launch pad will be located at the former launch site for the Diamant rocket and work has already started to outfit it with the necessary accommodations and hardware for Miura 5.
In order to achieve these short term goals, the company is steadily increasing its workforce, with over 250 employees and growing at a rate of roughly 14 per month. Raúl Verdú, co-founder and CBDO at PLD Space, also explained that Miura 5’s development is fully funded adding “we have a financial runway until December 2026.”
Development barrel section for Miura 5. (Credit: Alejandro Alcantarilla for NSF)
Miura 5’s maiden launch is currently scheduled for late 2025, although Verdú recognizes that this will most likely slip to early 2026. This first launch will not fly paying customers but rather a suite of payloads under the company’s SPARK program.
This program was kickstarted earlier this year with the aim to fly low-risk payloads onboard the first flight of the rocket. PLD Space has received nearly 100 application projects from 24 different countries since it started the program. These proposals came from a varied set of sources, from schools to academia and including commercial companies wanting to test new technologies.
PLD Space projects it will only need two test flights of Miura 5 after which it will be able to begin operational flights. The company expects the first operational flights to be for government institutions, followed by commercial customers in later flights.
Verdú explained during his own presentation at the main event that PLD Space had received a commercial interest that could translate into €600 million of money influx, although only €47 million has been translated into actual signed contracts.
He also outlined the projected launch cadence of Miura 5 with up to five flights expected in 2025 and ten in 2026. This would then grow over the years to a cadence of 30 launches per year by 2030.
Planned launch manifest for Miura 5 in the coming years. (Credit: PLD Space)
PLD Space’s new headquarters will also be where the rocket will be built and it is currently being fitted to build six rockets per year by the end of 2025. This is something that will have to be improved over time in order to fulfill that goal of 30 launches per year by 2030.
Miura 5 is designed to be partially reusable, with its first stage returning to a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean for recovery and post-flight inspections. This type of recovery will be enabled thanks to the experience with the smaller Miura 1 rocket which PLD Space used as a reusability testbed.
Artist impression of a Miura 5 booster descending under parachutes after launch and reentry. (Credit: PLD Space)
Once fully developed, Miura 5 will be able to carry about 1 tonne to an equatorial low-Earth orbit and 540 kg to a sun-synchronous orbit. This rocket will be 35.7 m tall and 2 m in diameter, being able to launch small to medium-sized satellites into orbit.
This, however, will likely not stay true forever. Verdú explained that the rocket is engineered such that there is a considerable margin in its design, allowing them to expand its capability to orbit in the future. The improvements will also come thanks to the capability to return and recover Miura 5’s first stage, which the company hopes will give engineers insight into what systems can be improved the most.
Miura 5 v1.1 and Miura NEXT
These performance improvements will likely be introduced in the next version of Miura 5, which the company announced during this event as the Miura 5 Block 1.1.
This upgraded version would also feature a reusable first stage but would instead make use of propulsive flyback and landing of the booster, returning back to a soft landing at a landing pad near the launch site.
Artist impression of a Miura 5 booster performing a propulsive landing back at the Guiana Space Centre. (Credit: PLD Space)
PLD Space, however, has not given any technical details on the new version of Miura 5 such as performance, thrust, size, etc. Verdú did outline the expected timeline to this new version, which the company hopes to develop just two years after Miura 5’s maiden launch.
While the first few launches of this new version will fly in expendable mode, eventually the company wants to transition to flying most of the missions in reusable configuration. By doing this, the new factory would only need to produce a small amount of rockets per year to reach the desired 30 launches per year goal by 2030.
Miura 5’s manifest breakdown including the Block 1.1 version in expendable and reusable configurations. (Credit: PLD Space)
According to Verdú, this will drastically reduce the cost of launching the rocket by 60 percent. It is not yet clear whether this will mean a lower price tag for its customers or larger profit margins for PLD Space which plans to sell Miura 5 launches at €12 million apiece.
However, money is not the entire reason for PLD Space to upgrade its Miura 5 with this capability. “All of the technology that we developed for Miura 1 helped enable Miura 5. The technology onboard Miura 5 will enable our next launcher” said Raúl Verdú during his presentation at the main event.
This next launcher will be the Miura NEXT, a medium-lift launch vehicle that resembles a scaled-up version of Miura 5. NEXT will also feature five engines on its first stage but will be 3.5 m in diameter and 60 m tall.
The rocket will use the same liquid oxygen and biokerosene propellants but the engine, still unnamed, will be closed cycle instead of open cycle. This new engine will be an evolution of the TEPREL-C and will run on an oxygen-rich staged combustion cycle.
Artist impression of a Miura NEXT rocket in flight. (Credit: PLD Space)
Miura NEXT will be designed from the start to perform a propulsive flyback and landing on Earth, being capable of carrying up to 13.5 metric tons to low-Earth orbit (LEO) in expendable configuration. In reusable configuration, its capabilities vary depending on the destination orbit and whether the booster is flying back to the launch site or it is recovered on a barge at sea.
This rocket will enable PLD Space to enter the medium-lift launch market and would allow it to support launches of satellite constellations and satellites to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO).
The company aims to develop two additional variants of this rocket, Miura NEXT Heavy and Miura NEXT Super Heavy. These would add two and four boosters to the first stage of Miura NEXT respectively, improving its payload performance and capabilities.
CEO Raúl Torres compared this design choice to the Russian Angara, nicknaming it “the European Angara” and making note of the company’s aim to serialize the manufacturing of the engines. By flying with multiple boosters the company would also serialize the construction of the boosters and that way enable a heavy launch vehicle with a much lower development and manufacturing cost.
PLD Space’s family of Miura rockets with a person for scale. From left to right they are: Miura 1, Miura 5, Miura NEXT, Miura NEXT with crew capsule, Miura NEXT Heavy, and Miura NEXT Super Heavy. (Credit: PLD Space)
Miura NEXT Heavy would allow PLD Space to enter the heavy-lift launch market with a payload capacity of up to 36 tonnes to LEO in expendable configuration. If the boosters are returned back to the launch site for a landing, the rocket would still be able to launch nearly 20 tonnes to LEO.
“But here what’s important is that we go from a purely commercial interest to entering a new league which is the capability of launching into orbit. The design of Miura NEXT Heavy will exceed the capacity to orbit that Europe has ever had.” Torres said while outlining the capabilities of the rocket.
He emphasized the need for such a heavy lift launch vehicle within the next ten years, placing Europe at the same level as other space powers in the world who are already developing such capability.
Miura NEXT Super Heavy would improve this performance even further, with the expendable version capable of launching up to 53 tonnes to LEO. Most notably, this version would be capable of launching over 16 tonnes to the Moon and over 13 tonnes to Mars, allowing PLD Space to carry out missions beyond Earth orbit.
Artist impression of a quadruple booster landing at the Guiana Space Centre following the launch of a Miura NEXT Super Heavy in reusable configuration. According to the company, this version would be capable of launching up to 16 tonnes to LEO, 5 tonnes to GTO, and nearly 4 tonnes to the Moon. (Credit: PLD Space)
“This implies we’ll be able to enter for real the space race to transport payloads beyond Earth, thinking about the Moon and Mars,” explained Torres during his presentation, outlining the importance of having this kind of capability in Europe in a future that’s moving beyond low-Earth orbit.
He also said that the company hopes to debut Miura NEXT in 2030, followed two years later by the Heavy version and two years later by the Super Heavy version. He also acknowledged this was an aggressive timeline saying “2033, 2035, we don’t care about the date. What’s important is to meet this goal [of developing the rockets].”
Project LINCE:
Although this plan to develop an entirely new family of rockets is aggressive, the company’s ambitions don’t stop at that. PLD Space also announced its Project LINCE (Spanish for Lynx) which aims to develop a reusable space capsule to transport cargo and people to orbit and back.
This capsule would be able to carry up to 5,000 kg of cargo to orbit and return up to 3,400 kg back to Earth. Its crewed configuration would be able to carry four to five astronauts depending on the mission.
A view of the interior of the low confidence test article showcased at PLD Space’s BEYOND event as part of the company’s LINCE project. The capsule is in a four-seat configuration in this photo. (Credit: Alejandro Alcantarilla for NSF)
The capsule would be launched on Miura NEXT and, in fact, PLD Space announced that both the maiden flight of Miura NEXT and the maiden flight of the capsule would be the same flight and in 2030. This maiden flight would carry three mannequins, orbit the Earth for three days, and then return to a splashdown either in the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea.
The spacecraft would carry a service module for in-space propulsion, power, and cooling although the company did not give any details about it. It would also feature a traditional launch escape system with an escape tower and shroud, similar to Russia’s Soyuz, China’s Shenzhou, or India’s Gaganyaan spacecraft.
Miura 5’s first stage will be used for the in-flight abort test of PLD Space’s crew capsule, scheduled for no earlier than 2028. (Credit: PLD Space)
This launch escape system will be tested on the ground and also in flight using a modified Miura 5 first stage for the test. PLD Space hopes to begin parachute drop testing of the capsule in 2025 and has already built a low confidence test article which it showcased during its BEYOND event last month.
The company also thinks the spacecraft will be able to fly to the Moon using the heavier versions of Miura NEXT, although it has not detailed how the spacecraft’s design would change for such a mission.
Feasibility
One of the key topics of discussion after this announcement has been the feasibility of the plans and goals that PLD Space showed during the event.
Developing an orbital rocket is a complex endeavour and many companies have not been successful at this or even sustaining themselves after achieving orbit. Modifying said orbital rocket to be capable of propulsive landing is also complicated, as has been demonstrated by other companies.
PLD Space’s 10-year roadmap to a human flight of the company’s crew capsule. (Credit: PLD Space)
Stepping up the game and then developing a family of medium to heavy lift launchers is an even more ambitious endeavor that will need extensive work and resources to succeed, let alone the development of a spacecraft for cargo and crew.
Co-founder Raúl Verdú recognized these are challenging goals but that the company preferred to release these plans to the public early on instead of keeping them secret. Referring to these plans he said “We are completely crazy but we deliver crazy things […] I learned one thing and that is that you will never succeed with something that is not in your objectives. If you don’t put that as an objective, it’s impossible to achieve it”
(Lead image: Composition of artist impressions of a Miura NEXT Super Heavy rocket at liftoff and PLD Space’s crew capsule during reentry. Credit: PLD Space)
The post PLD Space unveils ambitious plan for the next decade appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com.
Comments
Post a Comment