Streamed live on Mar 19, 2025In our series "Europe's Future in Space", NSF will conduct interviews with upcoming companies in the European space industry, to talk about their plans, timelines, and technology.In Episode 4, we are talking with Yohann Leroy, CEO of MaiaSpace. MaiaSpace is working on a reusable medium-lift launch vehicle.Watch live views of Earth and space via Sen's 4k camera on the ISS:YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fO9e9jnhYK8 Sen's Website: https://www.sen.com/video/48b728ea-3e0d-4203-84d3-0a5caa2dfdfa
Streamed live on Mar 26, 2025In our series "Europe's Future in Space", NSF will conduct interviews with upcoming companies in the European space industry, to talk about their plans, timelines, and technology.In Episode 5, we are talking with Debbie Strang, COO of the Shetland Space Center (SaxaVord Spaceport). SaxaVord, located on the Shetland island of Unst, is the UK's leading spaceport.
Streamed live on Apr 2, 2025In our series "Europe's Future in Space", NSF will conduct interviews with upcoming companies in the European space industry, to talk about their plans, timelines, and technology.In Episode 6, we are talking with Stefan Brieschenk, COO of Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA). RFA is developing its RFA ONE smallsat launch vehicle, which is scheduled to perform its first test flight from SaxaVord Spaceport later this year.
Streamed live April 9, 2025In our series "Europe's Future in Space", NSF will conduct interviews with upcoming companies in the European space industry, to talk about their plans, timelines, and technology.In Episode 7, we are talking with Stefano Antonetti, the VP of Business Development at D-Orbit. D-Orbit is an Italian company building and operating Orbital Transfer Vehicles (OTVs), with plans to expand to support on-orbit servicing missions.
Jun 4, 2025In our series "Europe's Future in Space", NSF will conduct interviews with upcoming companies in the European space industry, to talk about their plans, timelines, and technology.In Episode 8, we are talking with Sebastian Klaus, the Founder & CEO of ATMOS Space Cargo. ATMOS manufactures and operates their PHOENIX reentry capsule, allowing customers to return samples and test new technologies.PHOENIX-1, the companies first spacecraft, launched aboard SpaceX's Bandwagon-3 rideshare mission on April 21st, 2025.
Scheduled for Jul 9, 2025In our series "Europe's Future in Space", NSF will conduct interviews with upcoming companies in the European space industry, to talk about their plans, timelines, and technology.In Episode 9, we are talking with Adrià Argemí, the Founder & CEO of Pangea Aerospace. Pangea - a Spanish & French company, is developing aerospike engines.The company has successfully tested their Demo P1 engine, and are developing ARCOS - their flagship aerospike. All of their products burn methane and liquid oxygen.
Scheduled for Aug 6, 2025In our series "Europe's Future in Space", NSF will conduct interviews with upcoming companies in the European space industry, to talk about their plans, timelines, and technology.In Episode 10, we are talking with Derek Harris, the Head of Business Development at Skyrora. Skyrora manufactures and launches both suborbital (Skylark) and orbital (Skyrora XL) launch vehicles.On August 5th 2025, Skyrora obtained a Spaceflight Operator License from the UK Civil Aviation Authority to conduct up to 16 launches of its Skylark L vehicle from SaxaVord spaceport in the next 12 months.Previously, in October 2022, Skyrora conducted the first test flight of Skylark L which resulted in an early termination due to a software issue.
Scheduled for Aug 20, 2025In our series "Europe's Future in Space", NSF will conduct interviews with upcoming companies in the European space industry, to talk about their plans, timelines, and technology.In Episode 11, we are talking with the CEO of Andøya Space, Ketil Olsen and the the President of Andøya Spaceport, Troels Sandreid. Andøya supports launches of suborbital and orbital launch vehicles.Earlier this year, Andøya supported the first orbital launch attempt of a European rocket from the European mainland, with Isar Aerospace's "Going Full Spectrum" mission.In addition to Isar Aerospace, Andøya regularly supports sounding rocket research missions.
https://europeanspaceflight.com/latitude-commits-e8m-to-launch-facility-in-french-guiana/ [June 26]Quote Latitude Commits €8M to Launch Facility in French GuianaLatitude commits €8 million to develop its new launch facility at the Guiana Space Centre, set to host the inaugural flight of its Zephyr rocket in 2026.French launch services provider Latitude has announced that it will conduct the inaugural flight of its Zephyr rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. The company has committed €8 million to developing its section of a new commercial launch facility being constructed by the French space agency CNES on the grounds of the former Diamant launch complex.Some quick notes:They want to launch in the next 18 monthDimensions changed from 19 m long 1.5 wide (according to their site) to 20m long 1.6m wideThey Aim for 50 launches/year, of which 10-15 will be from KourouThey will announce a 2nd launch location in next few months, the first launch may not be from KourouThey're building a test launch pad at their test site near Reims, will copy and improve for their 1st site, then 1.5-2 years later 2nd siteThe launch pad is controlled by the rocket."electron is 70% more expensive than zephyr" [Note: it is also 60% more capable]Navier engine (1st stage variant) 38kN in vac, single shaft LOX-RP1 turbopump with HTP gas generatorThey hope to hot fire a fully integrated Navier in next few weeksNo reuse is planned, they don't think it's profitable They want to qualify engines by mid 2026, test S2 in late 2025/Q1 2026 rocket tanks being welded, test stand almost ready (no hot fire), they want to ship the 1st flight model in late 2026/Q1 2027.Some quotes:""why shoud we hot fire the 2nd stage? Like seriously what's the probability the second stage even separates and ignites [On the 1st launch]? Why would we lose 3 months qualifying it?""""the first flight is not going to launch to orbit, the odds of it reaching orbit are extremely low, and if it does that means we spent too much time and money developing it, and that we were extremely lucky and we won't be as much on the 2nd flight" "
Latitude Commits €8M to Launch Facility in French GuianaLatitude commits €8 million to develop its new launch facility at the Guiana Space Centre, set to host the inaugural flight of its Zephyr rocket in 2026.French launch services provider Latitude has announced that it will conduct the inaugural flight of its Zephyr rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. The company has committed €8 million to developing its section of a new commercial launch facility being constructed by the French space agency CNES on the grounds of the former Diamant launch complex.
