Arianespace Signs MOUs with Orbex and PLD Space to Explore Launch Partnerships

With Europe facing a crisis in its access to space, the continent’s sole launch provider, Arianespace, has signed memorandums of understanding with startups Orbex and PLD Space to explore partnerships that could provide a range of rides to orbit for customers.

“This collaboration holds a lot of promise for the European launch market and we’re excited to see where we can take this,” Orbex CEO Martin Coates said in a press release. “We are clearly very pleased that Arianespace has chosen to work with Orbex. We already have a strong position in the emerging European microlauncher market and this cooperation could take us even further commercially.”

Orbex is developing a 19-meter (62-foot) tall, two-stage Prime rocket that will be capable of placing 180 kg (397 pounds) into sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). The company began construction of the Sutherland Spaceport on the north coast of Ireland in May, and plans to launch 12 times per year from the facility.

PLD Space is a Spanish startup developing the MIURA 1 suborbital and MIURA 5 orbital launch vehicles. The two-stage MIURA 5 booster is being designed to launch 540 kg (1,191 pounds) to SSO. The company is preparing for the maiden launch of MIURA 1, which will serve as a test bed for the orbital booster.

“The Premium Service proposed by PLD Space together with the experienced Arianespace will provide to the customer optimized launch solutions such as to address the highly demanded deployment of small constellations or combination of multiple small satellites,” said PLD Space Senior Vice President Pablo Gallego Sanmiguel. “Also, this provides the possibility to have a backup solution highly demanded by our customers. The combination of PLD Space and Arianespace launch family provide to the SmallSat community the assurance to get to any orbit at any time.”  

The MOUs were announced amid what European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Josef Aschbacher has called a crisis in the continent’s access to space. “From mid-2023, we do not have guaranteed access to space for European launches, and this is a huge problem,” he said in January.

That crisis has now arrived. Arianespace is set to launch its largest booster, Ariane-5, for the 117th and final time on Friday (June 16). Its replacement, Ariane 6, has suffered delays for years and many question whether it can compete with SpaceX’s dominant Falcon 9 launcher. Ariane 6 is scheduled to fly for the first time at the end of this year, although the maiden flight could slip into 2024.

Europe’s smaller, solid-fuel Vega-C booster has been grounded since it failed on its second flight in December of last year. Vega-C is an upgraded version of the Vega rocket, which has a record of 18 successes and two failures since its maiden launch in February 2012.

Arianespace suspended a commercial partnership with Russia to launch medium-lift Soyuz rockets after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The boosters were launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome, and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Meanwhile, ESA has been forced to look abroad for launch services. Last October, Aschbacher announced the space agency signed a contract with SpaceX to launch the Euclid space telescope and Hera asteroid missions on Falcon 9 rockets.

Europe’s launch crisis comes as the launch industry worldwide is in the midst of a transition. US launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA) is phasing out the use of its Atlas V and Delta IV Heavy boosters. ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket has suffered years of delays. Its maiden flight is scheduled for this summer.

Japan’s new H3 rocket failed during its maiden launch in March. The booster is replacing the H-IIA rocket, which is being phased out. Japan’s Epsilon small-satellite launcher has been grounded since last October when it suffered its first failure in six flights.

In addition to Orbex and PLD Space, a Scottish company named Skyrora and three German startups – Rocket Factory Augsburg, Isar Aerospace, and HyImpulse Technologies – are developing small-satellite launch vehicles, but none of the companies has launched a rocket yet. Orbital spaceports are also being developed in Scotland, Norway, and Sweden.