PLD Space

Last updated
Payload Aerospace S.L.
PLD Space
Company type Private
Industry Launch service provider
Founded2011;14 years ago (2011)
FounderRaúl Torres, Raúl Verdú and José Enrique Martínez
FateActive
Headquarters
Elche, Spain
Key people
Raúl Torres (co-founder & CEO); Raúl Verdú (co-founder & COO)
Products TEPREL rocket engine
Miura 1 rocket
Miura 5 rocket
ServicesSuborbital & orbital rocket launch; Rocket engine testing
Number of employees
300+ (February 2025)
Website pldspace.com

Payload Aerospace S.L. (PLD Space) is a Spanish company developing two partially-reusable launch vehicles called Miura 1 and Miura 5.

Contents

Miura 1 is designed as a sounding rocket for sub-orbital flights to perform research or technology development in microgravity environment and/or in the upper atmosphere. Furthermore, Miura 1 is also serving as the technological demonstrator of the orbital launcher Miura 5. Miura 5 will provide orbital launch capabilities for small payloads such as CubeSats, that need a flexible and dedicated launch vehicle and therefore can not fly with traditional launch vehicles. It is being designed to deliver a total payload mass up to 900 kg (2,000 lb) into low Earth orbit. [1] [2]

Recovery of the first stage would be by the use of parachutes and splashdown for re-use.

History

PLD Space was founded in 2011 by Raúl Torres, Raúl Verdú and José E. Martínez in Elche, Spain, and as of 2019 it employed 70 people. In August 2017 the company headquarter moved to new facilities in the Elche Industrial Park, where the assembly facilities for Miura 1 are located. [3]

Since 2014, the company has operated an engine test stand located at Teruel Airport, [4] where they performed the first test of its liquid fuel engine on 1 July 2015. [5] It was the first time a liquid rocket engine was tested in Spain, and the first time a private company in Europe tested a liquid rocket engine on its own facilities. As of 2018, PLD Space had plans to expand their test facilities to include a vertical test stand to qualify the complete Miura 1 suborbital rocket. [6]

In early August 2018, PLD Space and the Teruel Airport Consortium signed the concession of a 13337 m2 space at the airport for the PLD Space to test launcher technology. The agreement has a period of 25 years, with the option of an additional 10-year extension. PLD Space will invest € 1 million in infrastructure for the construction of a new control room, offices, access paths, a rocket engine maintenance hangar and a new test bench to test the complete Miura 1 rocket. [7]

In November 2018 PLD Reached an agreement with INTA (transl. Esteban Terradas National Institute for Aerospace Technology) to launch Miura 1 from El Arenosillo. [8] The agreement is not limited to using the INTA facilities for launching but rather establishing a lasting relationship that will allow them to develop scientific, aerospace and technical knowledge.

In July 2019, PLD Space reached an agreement with CNES to study the launch of Miura 5 from CSG, French Guiana. [9] As part of their agreement, INTA is also helping them procure a launch site, being El Hierro Launch Centre the best option from a technical point of view. [10]

As of March 2023, the company planned to launch their first Miura 1 vehicle in the second quarter of 2023 from El Arenosillo Test Centre. [11] The launch successfully occurred on 7 October 2023 at 0:19 UTC.[ citation needed ]

Funding

Rocket engine testing Aeropuerto de Teruel, PLD Space, Espana.png
Rocket engine testing

The company has been funded through a series of investment rounds from both institutional and private sources, raising a total of € 120M by 1 June 2024.

By 2013, the company, had gathered investments worth approximately US$ 10M.[ citation needed ] In 2013 they closed a US$ 1.6M investment round, [12] including a seed contract with the Spanish Government through the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI).[ citation needed ]

In December 2015, PLD Space secured its first commercial contract as one of the partners in the Small Innovative Launcher for Europe (SMILE) program with the European Commission and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The company contracted to test liquid propulsion engines for the DLR at its propulsion test facilities in the airport of Teruel. [13] [14] In April 2016, PLD Space secured a further US$ 1.56M from Spain's TEPREL reusable launcher engine program. TEPREL (Acronym for Spanish Reusable Propulsion Technologies for Launchers) will help PLD Space to continue their liquid rocket engine program, [12] [15] \ the first one in Spain dedicated to boost the small satellite industry in Europe. This project will help PLD Space to develop a 35 kN rocket engine qualified for flight.[ citation needed ]

In October 2016, The European Space Agency (ESA) selected PLD Space as the prime contractor for the "Liquid Propulsion Stage Recovery" project (LPSR) as part of the agency's Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP). The goal of this project is to study a strategy to recover the first stage of a launcher, making it partially reusable, with a prospected funding of US$ 800,000. [16] In a second investment round, closed in January 2017, the company secured US$ 7.1M, US$ 3.2M of that contributed by GMV. GMV also took the role to develop the complete avionics of Miura 1 and Miura 5, including guidance, navigation and control (GNC), telemetry and onboard software for both launchers. [17] PLD Space received further € 2M in January 2018 through the European Commissions Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) Instrument Phase 2, as part of the European Union's Horizon 2020 program for research and innovation, a grant to support to the development of a pair of launchers designed for small satellites. [18] In February 2018 PLD Space was one of the five companies chosen by ESA to perform a feasibility study proposing an economically viable, commercially self-sustaining microlauncher. For this, the company received a funding of US$ 368,000. [19] [20] In September 2020, PLD Space secured € 7M Series B funding from Arcano partners. [21] [ needs update ]

Vehicles

Miura 1

Miura 1 exhibited in Madrid in November 2021 Miura 1 expuesto en Madrid en noviembre de 2021 06.jpg
Miura 1 exhibited in Madrid in November 2021

Miura 1 is a single stage sub-orbital launch vehicle, the first designed in Europe that is intended to be recoverable from the outset. [6] It uses a TEPREL-B engine, also designed and produced by PLD Space.

Miura 5

Miura 5 reuse testing in 2019 Prueba de reutilizacion, Miura 5, Huelva, Espana, 2019 04.jpg
Miura 5 reuse testing in 2019

Miura 5 is a 35.7 m long two-stage launch vehicle capable of placing up to1,080 kg of load in low Earth orbit. It uses 5 TEPREL-C engines.

Miura Next

Miura Next is a family of partially reusable launch vehicles that is under development. The base version of Miura Next will consist of a single core first stage booster and an upper stage. The Heavy is a 3 core version of the same architecture, while the Super Heavy is a 5 core version. Each booster will use 5 closed cycle oxidizer-rich engines that will use RP-1 and LOX as propellants and produce more than 1100 kN of thrust. The structures of Miura Next will be produced from an aluminium composite material. The 1 core version is planned to be operational by 2030 - while the Heavy version is planned to be operational 1-2 years later. [22]

Lince

Lince (Lynx in English) is the name of the project to develop a cargo and crewed capsule. It will have a mass of 5 tons, a diameter of 3.2 meters, and 8 cubic meters of volume. It will be able to carry up to four or five astronauts, or 3.4 tons of cargo to low Earth orbit. [23]

Facilities

PLD Space has its headquarters and main factory in Elche, Spain. In addition to this main office, it has other facilities:

PLD Space Propulsion Test Facilities

This section is an excerpt from Teruel Airport § PLD Space Propulsion Test Facilities.[ edit ]
In August 2018, Spanish launch service provider PLD Space signed a concession with the Teruel Airport Consortium for 13,337 m2 of space at the airport to test launch vehicle technology. The agreement covered 25 years, with an optional 10-year extension. PLD Space was to invest €1M in infrastructure for the construction of a new control room, offices, access paths, a rocket engine maintenance hangar and a new test bench to test its Miura 1 rocket. Over the previous three years, testing had been conducted at the airport on a short-term contract basis. [24]

El Arenosillo Test Centre

PLD Space has reached an agreement with the Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial for the use of the facilities of the El Arenosillo Test Centre (CEDEA) for the launch of the Miura 1 vehicle and tests of the Miura 5.[ citation needed ]

Guiana Space Centre

The company has a concession of 15,765 square meters of space in the launch complex ELM, in the Guiana Space Centre, where a launch area and a preparation area are currently under construction. This includes an integration hangar, a clean room, a control center, and commercial and working offices. [25]

Notes

    References

    1. ↑ Henry, Caleb (28 November 2018). "PLD Space, after ESA input, doubles lift capacity of smallsat launcher". SpaceNews . Retrieved 29 November 2018.
    2. ↑ Henry, Caleb (30 November 2016). "Spanish propulsion startup wants to build Europe's first reusable rockets". SpaceNews. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
    3. ↑ Moltó Agulló, Daniel (11 February 2018). "PLD Space: Talento de Elche a la conquista del mercado aeroespacial". El Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 May 2018.
    4. ↑ Franco Ballester, Leonor (21 December 2018). "PLD Space creará un nuevo banco de pruebas en el aeropuerto para cohetes completos". Heraldo de Aragón (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 May 2018.
    5. ↑ Peláez, Javier (2 December 2015). "PLD Space, la empresa española camino de lanzar satélites e incluso alcanzar la Luna". Yahoo Finanzas (in Spanish). Retrieved 27 March 2025.
    6. 1 2 Marín Arcones, Daniel (16 Feb 2018). "Europa apuesta por PLD Space para alcanzar el espacio". Eureka. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
    7. ↑ "PLD SPACE signs a 25-year concession for rocket engine testing at Teruel Airport". SpaceDaily. 7 August 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
    8. ↑ "Acuerdo entre INTA y PLD Space para lanzar el cohete MIURA 1 desde el Centro de Experimentación de "El Arenosillo"" (Press release) (in Spanish). Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aerospacial. Retrieved 27 March 2025.
    9. ↑ PLD Space [@PLD_Space] (1 July 2019). "Today @PLD_Space and @CNES, and with the support of @CDTIoficial signed at #EUCASS2019 a preliminary Agreement to study the launch of #MIURA5 microlauncher from CSG, French Guayana. #Microlaunchers #EUCASS #MIURA5" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
    10. ↑ Salom Piqueres, José María (14 April 2019). "Entrevistamos al Teniente general José María Salom, director general del INTA". Defensa (Interview) (in Spanish). Interviewed by Pons Alcoy, Juan. Retrieved 27 March 2025.
    11. ↑ Parsonson, Andrew (13 March 2023). "EU introduces space strategy". European Spaceflight. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
    12. 1 2 Caleb, Henry (9 Jan 2017). "Spain's GMV takes a stake in PLD Space's reusable rocket quest". SpaceNews . Retrieved 27 May 2018.
    13. ↑ "PLD Space Receives Funding For Liquid Rocket Engine Propulsion Project". Satnews. 27 July 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
    14. ↑ "Start of design for concept SMall Innovative Launcher for Europe (SMILE)". NLR. 31 May 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
    15. ↑ Messier, Doug (10 April 2016). "PLD Space Receives Funding From Spanish Government". Parabolic Arc. Archived from the original on 30 March 2023. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
    16. ↑ "La ESA confía a la española PLD Space su proyecto de cohete reutilizable". Europa Press. 3 March 2016. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
    17. ↑ "La multinacional GMV invierte en PLD Space" (Press release). PLD Space. 9 January 2017. Archived from the original on 28 May 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
    18. ↑ "PLD Space Awarded €2m Grant from the European Commission for the ARION Micro-Launcher Programme". Archived from the original on 28 May 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
    19. ↑ "ESA explores microlaunchers for small satellites". 8 Feb 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
    20. ↑ Caleb, Henry (8 Feb 2018). "ESA awards five smallsat launcher study contracts". SpaceNews. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
    21. ↑ "PLD Space closes €7M investment in tie-up with Arcano Partners" (Press release). PLD Space. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
    22. ↑ "Beyond_ by PLD Space - English dubbed version". Youtube. PLD SPACE. Retrieved 7 October 2024.
    23. ↑ "The Miura Next Heavy Rocket and the Crewed Capsule Lynx: PLD Space's Ambitious Space Program for the Next Twenty Years". Eureka (in Spanish). 2024-10-07. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
    24. ↑ PLD SPACE signs a 25-year concession for rocket engine testing at Teruel Airport, SpaceDaily, 2018-08-07
    25. ↑ "PLD Space comenzará en octubre a construir su base de lanzamiento en la Guayana".
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