The Universe of Thales Alecia
The European Space Agency has awarded initial contracts to a German startup and one of the continent’s established aerospace companies to develop spacecraft to transport cargo to and from space stations in low Earth orbit.
ESA announced two contracts worth 25 million euros ($27 million) on May 22. The Exploration Company, based in France and Germany, and Thales Alenia Space of Italy beat out four other companies in the competition for ESA funding through the LEO Cargo Return Service program.
These contracts will be valid for two years, until June 2026. In this first phase of the program, The Exploration Company and Thales Alenia Space will refine their concepts, advanced technologies and focus on the requirements for their cargo vehicles. ESA plans to award contracts for the second phase of the LEO Cargo Return Service program in 2026, with a return demonstration flight to the International Space Station (ISS) expected in 2028.
The Exploration Company, founded in 2021, says its Nyx cargo transporter could fly to the space station as early as 2027. The Thales Alenia Space demonstration mission is on target by the end of 2028, the company said in a statement. The Exploration Company plans to fly a smaller return vehicle on the maiden flight of Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket in July. Thales Alenia Space did not build the return craft, but it did make the pressure shells for several modules on the ISS.
ESA requirements state that commercial European cargo vehicles must be able to deliver 4 metric tons of equipment to low Earth orbit and return 2 metric tons to Earth.
ESA originally wanted to select three companies to continue the European cargo program. Samantha Cristoforetti, the ESA astronaut who is leading the contracts, said that only two winners “presented a combination of work plan and financial scheme that was suitable for the purposes of this challenge”.
Cristoforetti told Ars that ESA had received “six valid proposals” from European industry. It declined to identify the other competitors, but two of the proposals were believed to come from ArianeGroup and Rocket Factory Augsburg.
Partial commitment
Representatives of ESA’s 22 member states met in Seville, Spain last November to decide on several priorities for the space agency. The meeting brought several key decisions. Member states have agreed to adopt a more commercial model of purchasing launch vehicle services from European rocket startups in the future, although in the near term ESA remains all-in on the long-delayed Ariane 6 and Vega C rockets.
European governments have also signed up to the first phase of the LEO Cargo Return Service, but the initial €25 million contracts signed with The Exploration Company and Thales Alenia Space will only go so far. At its next high-level budget meeting late next year, ESA will ask its member states for the rest of the funding needed to carry out the program through demonstration flights to the ISS.
ESA works in budget cycles that usually last three years. This helps ensure stable funding for the agency’s programs, but can get in the way of the fast-paced changes that are emblematic of startup culture. However, Josef Aschbacher, ESA’s director general, won approval from his member states in November to use part of ESA’s funding to partner with the commercial truck industry.
“We want to be on the space station around 28. some of our competitors overseas have managed to build such a vehicle.”
Aschbacher seems serious about making ESA more nimble. However, the budget and direction of the agency are determined by the ministers of the European governments through the prism of local domestic politics.