The Spanish company PLD Space has presented its strategic plan at the Beyond_ event, held at its new headquarters within the framework of the first anniversary of the successful launch of Miura 1. During the day, the company has revealed the advanced status of the Miura 5 program, meeting the milestones that will allow it to start the launch campaign at the end of 2025.
In the presentation, PLD Space has revealed its medium and long-term future projects: Miura Next, its new family of large reusable launchers, and Lince, the first private manned capsule in Europeconsolidating itself as a benchmark in the industry worldwide. “We are going to be able to launch any type of cargo that may be useful in the market, offering space transportation solutions to all demand,” said the company’s executive president, Ezequiel Sánchez.
Behind him successful flight of Miura 1 on October 7, 2023, PLD Space has continued to develop its technological and industrial capacityreaching important milestones in the design and manufacturing of structures, propulsion technology or reuse systems, aspects that will be reflected and driven by the Miura 5 launcher.
Thus, during the last year, the company has taken great steps with the development of Miura 5. In this sense, the CEO and co-founder of the company, Raúl Torres, has highlighted the TEPREL-C engine, the fourth generation of its engine. own development, tested in flight with Miura 1. This milestone consolidates the company as one of the only three companies in Europe capable of developing liquid fuel engines.
“The TEPREL-C engine, with a thrust of 190 kN, is the heart of the Miura 5, designed and developed 100% by PLD Space to offer reliability, stability and cost efficiency. Furthermore, this system incorporates a high-performance turbopump, which has also been created by our company, demonstrating that we are capable of creating technology within the reach of very few companies in the world,” stated Raúl Torres.
The company has also presented the new reentry and recovery system that it will apply to the Miura 5 1.2 model, an evolved version of the launcher with greater orbit performance and a substantial increase in payload. This system, which allows the rocket to land, will improve the operating costs and flight rate of the launcher.
A cutting-edge launcher factory
PLD Space has held the Beyond_ event at its new 12,500 m² production plant in Elche (Alicante), the only one of its kind in Spain and one of the most advanced in Europe. This advanced factory combines the latest production and automation techniques with the most mature industrial processes on the marketguaranteeing maximum precision and quality in each phase of the process. The plant has the capacity to manufacture six complete Miura 5 launchers by 2025, as well as 60 Teprel-C engines for the same year.
To ensure the reliability of your projects, every creation goes through an exhaustive process that covers all stages, from design to launch. The Director of Business Development and co-founder of PLD Space, Raúl Verdú, added “MIURA 5 is designed to offer reliable, personalized and high-frequency launch services so, to ensure a real value proposition, we are using tested technology. on MIURA 1 and we have orbit control through a launch schedule and mission parameters that offer a world-class customer experience.”
Regarding the business, Verdú has stressed that as of today The company has received commercial interest worth more than €596 million and that the first commercial flights of Miura 5 will take place in 2026.
Now, the goal is access to space thanks to a new family of large launchers and Europe’s first private crew capsule. “We want to offer the market a complete space transportation capacity, covering 100% of flight needs,” underlined the CEO and co-founder of PLD Space, Raúl Torres.during his intervention.
To cover this demand that is currently neglected by the industry, the company has presented its new family of large Miura Next launchers, which is made up of Miura Next, Miura Next Heavy and Next Super Heavy, with capacity to place up to 53 tons into orbit. The company plans to carry out the first flight of Miura Next in 2030. The technology developed will be transferred to the following models in the Miura Next range. “Miura Next Super Heavy It will be one of the most powerful rockets in the world, capable of launching more than 16 tons to the Moon and 13 tons to Mars in its non-recoverable version.as well as 3.6 tons to the Moon and 2.4 tons to Mars in its recoverable version,” Torres indicated.
With the same objective, PLD Space has taken a step further by completing its space transportation offer with Lince, the first manned capsule developed in Europe by a private company with a capacity of eight cubic meters.. This program will allow Europe to have the capacity to take astronauts to space and return them to Earth, consolidating European technological sovereignty in manned missions.
The Lince’s first tests will start in 2025 to make your first unmanned test flight with Miura 5 in 2028 from the European spaceport CSG (French Guiana), with the aim of achieving the first orbital flight in 2030. “We are convinced that we are developing a company with the necessary strength to address the challenge of offering full access to space,” Ezequiel Sánchez concluded.
Spark: a commitment to the future
As part of its mission to make space accessible to all, PLD Space has released the first results of its SPARK program, which will provide free launch services for scientific and technological projects developed by students and research centers. The first Spanish female astronaut, Sara García-Alonso, took the stage to present this mission, highlighting her approach to “encourage society to dream big.” After having closed the registration period for commercial and research entities, the program has received 98 applications from 24 countries, although the call remains open for schools, institutes and Vocational Training centers until November 15.