WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency has selected one of the continent’s largest space companies and one of its best-funded startups for contracts for studies that could lead to commercial cargo and crew vehicles.
ESA announced on May 22 that it had awarded contracts worth about 25 million euros ($27 million) each to Thales Alenia Space and The Exploration Company. The two companies will develop their vehicle concepts for transporting cargo to and from the International Space Station and commercial space stations.
“Today, ESA has further demonstrated its leadership in space for Europe and European citizens. The signing of the contracts for the return of cargo to low Earth orbit shows how ESA has modernized itself to meet the requirements of the next era of the space economy,” Josef Aschabcher, ESA Director General, said in a statement.
ESA announced plans for the cargo vehicle program at the European Space Summit in Seville, Spain last November. The program, modeled after NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) of nearly two decades ago, will provide support for commercially developed vehicles that could offer cargo transportation services and later evolve into manned spacecraft.
Contracts with Thales Alenia Space and The Exploration Company cover initial design work on their vehicles. ESA will seek funding for the later stages at its next ministerial meeting in late 2025, with the aim of having at least one vehicle ready for operation by 2028.
Thales Alenia Space, one of Europe’s largest space companies, is offering a capsule that will reportedly be compatible with the ISS and commercial space stations, as well as the Lunar Gateway. Thales facilities in Italy and France will join the project along with Altec, a joint venture between Thales Alenia Space Italia and the Italian space agency ASI, for the ground segment.
“Using its expertise in space exploration infrastructure and vehicles, the company, fully in line with the vision of the European Space Agency, wants to invest in the development of technological solutions that will provide Europe with sustainable access to low Earth orbit,” said Massimo Comparini, Deputy Director General and senior executive vice president of Thales Alenia Space, in a statement.
The Exploration Company is a startup working on spacecraft designed to transport cargo to and from Earth orbit and in cislunar space. Its first demonstration mission should fly on the inaugural launch of Ariane 6, now scheduled for the first half of June. The company raised $44 million in a Series A round in early 2023, one of the largest early rounds for a European space startup.
“We want to fly to the space station in ’27, so we’ve already started working on the final spacecraft,” Hélène Huby, CEO of The Exploration Company, said in an interview during the 39th.Thursday Space Symposium last month. That vehicle, she said, will be ready for preliminary design review this summer.
When Huby applied for the ESA program, she said she was working to get business from American companies working on commercial space stations. The company announced earlier this month that it had opened a U.S. office led by Mark Kirasich, a former NASA official whose role at the agency included serving as Orion program manager.
“If all goes well,” she said at the time, “we will have an American client and a European client.”
ESA did not immediately disclose how many companies submitted proposals or why the agency selected two when it previously said it could select up to three. ESA officials previously said they had seen strong interest in the program based on attendance at procurement meetings.
Among the companies that expressed interest in the competition were ArianeGroup, which designed a reusable vehicle called SUSIE, and Rocket Factory Augsburg, which earlier this year announced a cargo vehicle called Argo, which it designed in collaboration with Space Cargo Unlimited and ATMOS Space Cargo. .