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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ARION (Reusable launch vehicle for small payloads)

Teaser

Summary

Currently, there are no European rockets designed for small payloads and cubesats. Rocket Lab revealed itself as the first microlauncher reaching commercial operations, and only 6 launchers around the world are accepting small payloads. An alternative is the International Space Station (ISS), which requires special time-consuming safety qualification for each payload and have limited flight opportunities; the only ISS launch provider, NanoRacks, has launched 214 satellites in the last 4 years. Whereas, suborbital flights are mostly managed by national space agencies, leading to a very few flight opportunities. As of today, there are only 2 suborbital launch providers in Europe and 3 in the US, which together performed just 20 launches in 2016.

The US has always been ahead Europe in Space Industry, and maintain the position with advanced technologies of reusable rockets and rapidly rising number of private Space companies, such as SpaceX, Blue Origin or Up Aerospace. In the suborbital market, NASA alone has launched 2 times more sounding rockets between 2010 and 2016 than the whole Europe. Europe is not only losing its market share in Space, but also is limiting the business opportunities for technologies which cannot progress without space flights. PLD will be the first EU suborbital and orbital commercial launch provider, contributing to European non-dependency from non-European technologies, innovativeness and competitiveness. PLD will contribute to better exploitation of space benefits, creation of the right ecosystem for EU space start-ups and companies to grow and promote Europe\'s leadership in space.

Furthermore, PLD will be one of a few private space companies working in close relationship with international space agencies and research centers, hence promoting Public-Private partnerships (PPPs). ARION can serve as another launch platform for international space agencies, enabling them to provide enough and affordable flight opportunities. The ARION project perfectly aligns with the new Space Strategy for Europe, facilitating access to space and accelerating space technologies development. PLD will also contribute to the sustainable development goals such as â€˜responsible consumption and productionâ€™, â€˜industry innovation & infrastructureâ€™ and others, since ARION is a closed-loop and reusable system, powered by liquid fuel.

Work performed

During the first project period, PLD: defined specifications and completed design of Launch Structures, prepared Bill of Materials, designed tooling, prepared initial manufacturing and integration guidelines, upgraded assembly site, assembled RCS, designed recovery system, assembled recovery bay, prepared logistics plan for recovery, conducted market analysis, prepared first patent application, signed first commercial agreement and agreement with launch site and closed additional funding round.

Final results

The overall objective is to qualify the first commercial application of PLD technology, i.e. to finalise the design of the reusable suborbital launch vehicle, to set-up the launch infrastructure, and to flight qualify the vehicle, leading to commercialisation of the first commercial sRLV in Europe. This first move into the Space market will bring visibility and credibility, thus facilitating the offering of the orbital launches.