ESA Awards $50 Million to Design Mini-Starship
▼ Summary
– The European Space Agency signed a €40 million contract with Avio to design a reusable upper stage capable of orbital flight, Earth return, and relaunch.
– Reusing an upper stage is more challenging than recovering a booster stage, a capability European industry has not yet achieved.
– SpaceX has advanced reusable rocket technology with its Falcon 9 booster and is now developing the fully reusable Starship, though it faces technical hurdles.
– Avio will define requirements and system design over two years, culminating in a preliminary design for the reusable stage and necessary ground infrastructure.
– The proposed upper stage design visually resembles SpaceX’s Starship, featuring flaps and mounting on a Vega-like booster, but no specifications were released.
The European Space Agency has committed 40 million euros to develop a reusable upper stage for launch vehicles, partnering with Italian aerospace firm Avio. This initiative, announced at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney, aims to create technology allowing a rocket’s upper segment to journey into orbit, return safely to Earth, and fly again on subsequent missions. Achieving this represents a more complex challenge than recovering and reusing booster stages, an area where European industry still lags behind competitors.
SpaceX has demonstrated the viability of reusable boosters with its Falcon 9 rocket, inspiring numerous companies across the United States, China, and Europe to pursue similar capabilities. While many are focused on replicating Falcon 9’s success, SpaceX itself has moved forward, dedicating immense resources to its next-generation Starship, a fully reusable launch system standing over 400 feet tall. Despite the company’s substantial financial backing, developing the necessary technology for Starship has proven exceptionally difficult.
Now, other aerospace organizations are looking to emulate aspects of the Starship concept. The new ESA-Avio agreement illustrates this trend, marking a significant step toward European participation in the next wave of reusable launch systems.
Under the two-year contract, valued at approximately $47 million, Avio will outline system requirements, design architecture, and essential technologies for a flight demonstrator. The company’s stated goal is to define a system capable of safe Earth return and repeated use in future space missions. At the conclusion of this phase, Avio will submit a preliminary design for both the reusable upper stage and the associated ground infrastructure required for operations.
In aerospace development, a preliminary design review is an early but critical milestone, typically occurring years before a vehicle’s inaugural flight. For context, Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket completed its preliminary design review in 2016, with its first launch following eight years later in 2024.
An artist’s rendering released by Avio and ESA offers a glimpse of the proposed reusable stage. The vehicle’s appearance is strikingly similar to SpaceX’s Starship, featuring four aerodynamic flaps at its top and bottom. In the concept, this reusable upper stage is shown mounted on a booster similar to Avio’s solid-fueled Vega rocket. No specific details regarding the launcher’s dimensions or performance capabilities have been disclosed by the agencies.
(Source: Ars Technica)
