MaiaSpace Pushes Inaugural Launch of Maia Rocket to 2027By Andrew Parsonson -March 2, 2026Credit: MaiaSpaceDuring an event at the Guiana Space Centre on 24 February, ArianeGroup subsidiary MaiaSpace announced that the inaugural flight of its two-stage Maia rocket will take place in 2027, slipping from a previously expected late-2026 launch.Founded in 2022, MaiaSpace is developing a two-stage partially reusable rocket that will be capable of delivering up to 1,500 kilograms into low Earth orbit when launched in a fully expendable configuration. The company is also developing a kick stage that is expected to add as much as 1,000 kilograms to the rocket’s performance.In January, MaiaSpace confirmed that it was targeting an initial suborbital demonstration flight of its Maia rocket in late 2026. While the launch will use a full two-stage configuration of the rocket, it will carry a reduced propellant load to reach a minimum altitude of 100 kilometres, the generally accepted boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and space known as the Kármán line. The company told European Spaceflight at the time that the vehicle represented “a minimum viable product designed to test critical phases.”On 24 February, representatives from MaiaSpace, local authorities in Kourou, and the French space agency CNES gathered at the site of the former Soyuz launch facility at the Guiana Space Centre to sign a Temporary Public Domain Occupancy Agreement. This allows MaiaSpace to begin dismantling Soyuz-specific infrastructure that will no longer be required before starting construction of the modifications needed to launch Maia rockets from the site.During the event, Maia officials revealed that they expected to host the inaugural flight of Maia from the facility in 2027. When asked for comment by European Spaceflight, a representative explained that the company remained committed to launching its first rocket less than five years after the company’s creation.“We remain committed to our goal of achieving a first launch less than five years after the company’s creation i.e., April 2027. Our internal objective is even more ambitious: to have a launcher vertically mounted on the launch pad before the end of 2026 in order to conduct combined tests prior to our first flight. Maintaining this roadmap will not be without challenges and difficulties, but it is inherent to our iterative learning method, which places ground and flight testing at the heart of the development process to go faster.”...
SES: FY 2025 Results [Mar 2]QuoteSatelliteLaunch DateO3b mPOWER (11-13) H2 2026ASTRA 1Q 2027SES-262027EAGLE-12027IS-422027IS-432027IS-452027IS-412027IS-442027GOVSAT-220290207-EX-CN-2026 [Mar 3]QuoteSpace AI Inc. is pioneering the world’s first distributed, edge-supercomputing network in space. This experimental mission seeks to validate the core infrastructure of a Software Defined Computing Constellation designed to provide secure, high-performance AI and data services for the burgeoning space economy.[...]The constellation consists of 8 CubeSats with standard form factors: 3 × 2U (approximately 2 kg each), 2 × 3U (approximately 4 kg each), and 3 × 6U (approximately 8–12 kg each)[...]The 8 CubeSats will be deployed in separate launch opportunities over the course of the experimental term (e.g., in phases across multiple rideshare missions).[...]550 km (circular); inclination: approximately 90° (polar); expected operational lifetime: 1/3 years, with total on-orbit lifetime less than 5 years via passive atmospheric reentry. See attached Orbital Debris Assessment Report (ODAR) for detailed mitigation compliance.[...]A 24-month term is requested to accommodate phased deployments across multiple launch opportunities, post-launch testing, data collection, performance evaluation, and iterative experimentation of the advanced communications and computing architectures.
SatelliteLaunch DateO3b mPOWER (11-13) H2 2026ASTRA 1Q 2027SES-262027EAGLE-12027IS-422027IS-432027IS-452027IS-412027IS-442027GOVSAT-22029
Space AI Inc. is pioneering the world’s first distributed, edge-supercomputing network in space. This experimental mission seeks to validate the core infrastructure of a Software Defined Computing Constellation designed to provide secure, high-performance AI and data services for the burgeoning space economy.[...]The constellation consists of 8 CubeSats with standard form factors: 3 × 2U (approximately 2 kg each), 2 × 3U (approximately 4 kg each), and 3 × 6U (approximately 8–12 kg each)[...]The 8 CubeSats will be deployed in separate launch opportunities over the course of the experimental term (e.g., in phases across multiple rideshare missions).[...]550 km (circular); inclination: approximately 90° (polar); expected operational lifetime: 1/3 years, with total on-orbit lifetime less than 5 years via passive atmospheric reentry. See attached Orbital Debris Assessment Report (ODAR) for detailed mitigation compliance.[...]A 24-month term is requested to accommodate phased deployments across multiple launch opportunities, post-launch testing, data collection, performance evaluation, and iterative experimentation of the advanced communications and computing architectures.
