The European Space Agency (ESA) is advancing on its ambitions for future space transportation. This week, the agency has shortlisted five companies in the first stage of its European Launcher Challenge, aimed at igniting competition as well as increasing the availability of launch services in Europe.
Meanwhile, the agency’s restartable Prometheus engine has recently completed another round of multiple-ignition test firings, while the Themis reusable first stage prototype they will power has arrived in Sweden for a test campaign of its own.
ESA has preselected five private space companies that submitted proposals for its European Launcher Challenge. The initiative is part of the agency’s plans to develop European space transportation services and, as a byproduct, reduce costs through competition in this sector.
ESA announced that 12 submissions had been received during a press conference at last month’s Paris Air Show, from which the shortlist of five successful candidates has now been chosen. The successful challengers include the German-based Isar Aerospace and Rocket Factory Augsburg, the UK-based Orbital Express Launch (more commonly known as Orbex), the French Maiaspace, and the Spanish PLD-Space.
Of these companies, only the latter two are planning partially reusable rockets in their first iterations, namely Maispace’s methane-fueled Maia and PLD Space’s kerosene-fueled Miura 5, which will draw learnings from the flight of its suborbital Miura 1. Rocket Factory Augsburg’s kerosene-fueled RFA One has reusability further down its roadmap and is hoped will launch later this year from the UK’s SaxaVord spaceport, while Orbex’s bio-propane driven Prime launcher will launch from the same site no earlier than 2026 now. While expendable, Prime is aiming for a low environmental impact using clean propellants and carbon-neutral operations.
Isar Aerospace’s kerosene-fueled Spectrum would also be expendable initially and is the only vehicle within the group to have actually flown to date, albeit briefly. Spectrum’s maiden launch on March 30 this year ended within the first minute of flight after launching from the Andøya Spaceport in Norway.
The companies submitted their proposals in response to a call made by ESA back in March. To reach this stage, the five were evaluated to have the necessary technical and business maturity, along with development plans that were sustainable.
This now completes the first of two stages for the challenge. The agency will now enter into dialogue with ESA member states and the preselected companies to firm up the finer details with regard to timelines and project funding. This will be finalized at the 25th Ministerial Council meeting in November, when member states will commit funding to the project. The five challengers will then be invited to submit more detailed tenders for evaluation, with ESA expected to award contracts to two or more finalists.
ESA’s European Launcher Challenge imagery (Credit: ESA)
ESA has put aside a maximum of €169,000,000 per successful challenger to cover two key components of the contracts. The first would secure launch services from these providers for the period covering 2026 through 2030. The second would expect at least one flight from the provider that would demonstrate an upgrade in launch capacity.
Themis arrives at Esrange ahead of test campaign
Elsewhere in Europe, ESA’s Themis reusable rocket demonstrator has now completed its milestone two-week journey by boat and truck, travelling 3,000 km across five countries from France to the Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden.
Constructed in the old Ariane 5 integration building by the French-German ArianeGroup, Themis is Europe’s first full-scale reusable rocket demonstrator prototype and has been developed under ESA’s Future Space Transportation programme. It forms part of a wider project to advance Europe’s future in space with a reusable rocket first stage, in collaboration with a consortium known as SALTO. This is made up of 25 partners across 12 EU countries and is a loose abbreviation of ‘reuSable strAtegic space Launcher Technologies & Operations’.
The Themis reusable launcher first stage demonstrator, at the Les Mureaux site in France (Credit: ArianeGroup)
Themis uses a single next-generation Prometheus rocket engine and stands 28 meters tall with a diameter of 3.5 meters.
New dedicated infrastructure has been developed specifically for Themis at Esrange’s Launch Complex 3 with a 40-meter square launch pad and supporting infrastructure. The demonstrator will now be integrated with some experimental payloads in the new integration building before it is finalized into a flight configuration. From there, it will be moved to the launch pad for the first time, where it will also receive its landing legs, which were tested at ArianeGroup’s Vernon facility last summer.
In the weeks ahead, a series of combined tests will begin with a wet dress rehearsal and engine hot fire tests, after which the Themis prototype will take its first 20-meter ‘hop’. This very low-altitude vertical take-off and landing (VTVL) test is anticipated before the end of this year and will inform two more advanced test flights in 2026.
A second Themis demonstrator is already in development with design refinements, while a three-engine variant is planned much further down the roadmap. Lessons learnt from the Themis test campaign will then inform the development of a reusable first stage for the Ariane Next rocket, which is expected to debut in the 2030s.
Prometheus completes second hot-fire campaign
While the Themis demonstrator prepares for its test campaign, the Prometheus engine has now completed its second round of hot-fire testing.
The cryogenic engine uses the gas-generator cycle and burns liquid methane and oxygen as propellants. It has been designed by the ArianeGroup to be throttleable, with around 100 tonnes of thrust, and can be reused three to five times. Maiaspace is a subsidiary of the ArianeGroup and plans to utilize three of these engines to power Maia’s first stage, with a single vacuum-optimized version on its second. Seven to nine of the engines are expected to power the first stage of the Ariane Next – a heavy-lift successor to the Ariane 6.
The engine design takes advantage of the extensive use of 3D-printed components and has dramatically lowered costs. These are said to be one-tenth of the hydrogen-powered Vulcain 2 engines, which are currently used on the Ariane 5 and 6 rockets. ESA noted late last year that it was studying another version of the engine that would run on hydrogen and would benefit from the same industrialization processes to save costs. If viable, it might one day replace the Vulcain 2.1 on the Ariane 6.
The first Prometheus engine during testing in 2023 (Credit: ESA)
In Greek mythology, Themis is the mother of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and brought it to humans. Prometheus has certainly brought fire to the test bench in Vernon, France. The first hot-fire test took place back in June 2023, with additional tests conducted at the end of last year. The most recent tests in June this year put a second model of the engine through its paces on the PF20 test bench. These firings tested various thrust profiles and demonstrated four consecutive ignitions — a first for this type of engine in Europe.
While it’s comparable in power to the Vulcain, which remains Europe’s largest active engine, being able to restart Prometheus mid-flight will be crucial for Themis to relight its engines during descent and landing on reusable first stages.
A third Prometheus engine will next be subjected to even longer hot-firing tests at the German Space Agency’s P5 test bench in Lampoldshausen.
(Lead image: Vehicles from the five selected launch providers. – Credit: MaiaSpace, Orbex, Isar Aerospace, Rocket Factory Augsburg, PLD Space )
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