• Isar Aerospace has been selected by French Space Agency CNES to fly satellites from equatorial Guiana Space Centre (CSG)
• By securing yet another launch site in Europe, Isar Aerospace gains even more flexibility for its customers and adds an important pillar for future growth
• Opening of CSG for high frequency launches essential to serve growing global market for satellite launches

MUNICH, 21 July 2022 (Isar Aerospace PR) – Isar Aerospace, Europe’s leading and most well-funded private European launch service provider for small and medium satellite deployment, today announced that it has been selected by the French Space Agency CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales) to operate its rockets at the Diamant site of CSG (Centre Spatial Guyanais) in French Guiana. In the course of the open call of CNES, Isar Aerospace has signed a binding term sheet that lays the foundation to conduct commercial and institutional launch operations at CSG from 2024 onwards.

KOUROU, French Guiana (CNES PR) — On Wednesday June 22, 2022, Jean-Marc Astorg, Director of Strategy at CNES, and Alain Godard, Managing Director of the European Investment Fund (EIF) signed a partnership agreement at the Guiana Space Center to support SMEs and companies intermediate sizes in the space sector. This in the presence of Kris Peeters, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), responsible for the space and defense sector for the institution, and Marie-Anne Clair Director of the Guiana Space Center.

At the beginning of the year, the EIF and the ESA formalized a similar agreement. The agreement comes five months after the launch by Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, of the CASSINI system supported by the European Union and whose implementation has been entrusted to the EIF. The CASSINI initiative, which aims to mobilize more than one billion euros, is intended to support the development and growth of start-ups in the space sector in order to stimulate private investment in this growing economic sector.

PARIS (CNES PR) — On Thursday, October 14, 2021, there was held the Pitch Day of the Launchers R&D Challenge proposed by the CNES Launchers Department on the theme “technological breakthroughs and advanced concepts of launch systems”. 

Start-ups, SMEs, associations, laboratories and large industrial groups presented their innovation proposals to an audience bringing together experts from the space fabric, partners, supervisors, manufacturers.

In total, 550,000 euros in CNES contracts were won by the winners, each with 50,000 or 100,000 euros, to advance their solution. The winners are:

• DLR, CNES and ArianeGroup inaugurate the expansion of the European research and technology test bench P8.3 with a virtual celebration.
• Whether science or industry – the P8.3 offers a unique research and innovation environment for liquid-chemical space propulsion and promotes the fast industrial application of innovative technologies of future propulsion systems.
• Operation with different fuel combinations.
• Development and validation of demonstrators with different levels of technology maturity possible.

LAMPODSHAUSEN, Germany (DLR PR) — The German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the French Space Agency Center National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the company ArianeGroup the European research and technology test bench P8 expanded. The partners opened the new P8.3 test cell on April 14, 2021 as part of a virtual celebration. 

With the expansion, DLR has created the prerequisites for future space propulsion systems to be developed and tested almost entirely at the DLR site in Lampoldshausen. DLR Lampoldshausen has unique skills, infrastructure and many years of experience in this area. The interaction between research and development creates important synergies and strengthens engine expertise as an important pillar of European space transport.

PARIS (CNES PR) — On Wednesday, 24 June, research laboratories, start-ups, PMEs and other firms presented their work contributing to the launch systems of the future to a top-level audience. In all, €750,000 worth of CNES contracts were awarded to the laureates, which each received €50,000 or €100,000 to develop their solutions.

At its Innovation Day on 7 February in Toulouse, CNES announced a Launchers R&D Challenge under its Connect by CNES initiative, in partnership with ArianeGroup and ESA, designed to ease access to funding for launch systems.