Spanish company PLD Space wins the Aerospace PERTE and consolidates its leadership position in the European space race.
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Press Release, Elche, 03 July 2023: [auto-translated] PLD Space, the company that designs, develops, manufactures and operates the first private launcher in Europe, wins the aerospace PERTE to develop a micro launcher, having obtained the best technical qualification from the Mesa de Contratación, as well as the independent experts designated for the evaluation of the projects presented.
PLD Space attends PERTE with a large part of its technological partners and with strategic supply agreements, which strengthens the project and allows it to speed up its development. Among the strategic partners already approved in MIURA 1 are Aciturri, AIRBUS, Air Liquide, ALTER, Anteral, Applus, Caye, CECOM, CMASA, Deimos, INSYTE, LOGO 2, Special Machining, OCCAM, Repsol, Swagelok, Talleres Ramón Clemente and Tecno Lanema. This supply chain will provide technical support, components, engineering support, and manufacturing for the development and production of the MIURA 5 orbital launcher, scheduled for launch in 2025.
Ezequiel Sánchez, executive president of PLD Space, affirms: “We are working to facilitate European access to space and we will achieve it very soon. If we want Spain to become the tenth country with direct access to space, we must promote private-public collaboration “But we cannot replicate in PERTE what has not worked before in ESA programmes. We must work together to be more agile and with a different style of leadership and risk taking.”
The company’s track record, together with its high industrial capabilities and financial strength, together with the drive for the MIURA 5 supply chain and its commercial potential, consolidate PLD Space as one of the leading players in the small launcher sector. space at a European level, which has been positively valued by the bidding body for the aerospace PERTE.
Raúl Verdú, co-founder and director of business development of the company, highlights: “Thanks to this contract, Spain and PLD Space will be able to compete in the global market for launch services for satellites weighing less than 500kg without complexes. As we have demonstrated in the past , this public contract will allow us to triple the total budget available with private investment, which guarantees that we will be able to deliver our first MIURA 5 unit meeting the demanding deadlines set by this contract and ensure that Spain has the capacity to access space independently”.
The first phase of the PERTE, which will begin once the contracts are formalised, is endowed with 1.5 million euros for each successful bidder and focused on the design of the launcher and will end in December 2023. The bidding entity will then evaluate the proposals submitted and the most competitive design will go to a second phase in 2024, which is valued at 40.5 million euros.
The only Spanish company that has the necessary infrastructure to launch a rocket into space: PLD Space is the only Spanish company that has experience developing launchers and the only one that has the necessary infrastructure and capacity to develop, manufacture and launch an orbital rocket into space in just two and a half years.
The company is currently immersed in the launch of the MIURA 1, the first private rocket developed in Europe and the only one that is ready to be launched soon on the continent. It has been fully designed by PLD Space as a technology demonstrator with recovery and reuse requirements that only 3 companies in space history have achieved.
This first suborbital flight of MIURA 1 represents a turning point for the development of the MIURA 5 orbital launcher, since it will allow a large volume of information to be extracted to validate a large part of the design and technology that will serve as the basis for developing the MIURA 5 orbital launcher. .
Raúl Torres, CEO and co-founder of PLD Space, declares: “We are advancing at breakneck speed in the development of MIURA 5 thanks to MIURA 1, since we have an integrated team and a clear engineering strategy. Despite the fact that we did not achieve launch in the last attempt, we were able to complete all the procedures and reach the auto-sequence phase on time, with nominal engine start and thrust. All these learnings are transferred to the development of MIURA 5 so we are making a qualitative leap in its development”.
PLD Space –which has obtained more than 65 million in financing to date– has its headquarters in Elche (Alicante), has a team made up of more than 140 professionals and three centres located in Elche, Teruel and Huelva that add more of 100,000 m2 of industrial facilities. It is the only Spanish company that has the necessary infrastructure to validate the different MIURA 5 subsystems, including a test bench for liquid fuel rocket engines.
Having recently received permission from the French National Center for Studies (CNES) to operate MIURA 5 at the Guiana Space Center (Korou) in 2025, PLD Space becomes one of the three European private companies that will be able to operate from the historic space centre. In addition, the company already has launch service reservations for its first 5 flights and has signed an understanding agreement with the European space transport operator, Arianespace, whereby both companies will study a possible cooperation to respond to the growing demand. commercial access to space.
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