One year later Miura 1 rocket launch de Huelva, a Spanish company PLD Space He invited us to his factory in Elche to show us the road map for the coming years. It is much more ambitious than we could have hoped.
Space PLD has been secretly developing the European Union’s first private flight program for a year: the LINCE space capsule.
LINCE will have the ability four or five statues orbited the low groundwhere the International Space Station is and in the future there will be new commercial stations. It is also intended to reach the moon and the earth, once its mission is complete, in the Atlantic or in the Mediterranean.
LINCE is an ambitious project announced today by the city of Elche, which shows a model surrounded by transparent smoke in which a young astronaut wears a suit. Moments later, Raúl Torres asked the technicians to turn off the smoke machine because “people are trying to sell us smoke.”
Not just a LINCE example. Even if it is for a 10-year projectPLD defined the ship’s architecture, technical roadmap, vehicle configurations, subsystem requirements, how it would be spent, and what milestones they hope to achieve in the next decade.
Testing will begin in 2025 with a prototype capsule being launched by helicopter to attempt parachute recovery. In 2028, Space PLD hopes that the Miura 5 will be advantageous to bring the second LINCE prototype up to Max Q, the flight phase with the highest aerodynamic pressure.
LINCE is PLD’s space response to a historic need of the European Space Agency: the ability to launch astronauts from European soil (French Guiana) with a ship built in Europe.
PLD shows the ship to Joseph Aschbacherthe executive director of ESA, when he visited the PLD factory in Elche. Raúl Torres says that Aschbacher fell silent and told them: “Do it.”
Miura then launched a modular rocket to port ca-
LINCE is not the only surprise that Space PLD has prepared today. The Spanish manufacturer also presented its next rocket: the Miura Next, 60 meters high (for 35 and Miura 5 miles).
With a very similar architecture to the Miura 5 (including five RP-1 biokerosene and liquid oxygen engines), the Miura Proxima will be port-powered. Instead of recovering with a parachute, like the Miura 5 Block 1.1, the Miura Proximity will be able to land on the ground by turning on retractable cannons and legs, like SpaceX’s Falcon 9.
The comparison with the Falcon is not light because the Miura Proxima will also be a modular rocket, which PLD Space wants to configure with more runners to launch a larger amount of cargo. Miura Proxima Heavy will have two side thrusters capable of porting, like a box SpaceX Falcon Heavy. Miura Next Super Heavy will have four thrusters.
These configurations allow wild flexibility and maximum package capacity, which can cover up to 100% of the commercial needs of the industry.
In its available version, the Miura Proximo will be able to launch 13 tons into low Earth orbit. The Miura Next will be able to carry 36 tons of weight. And Miura Next Super Heavy will reach 53 tonsmuch more than what OESA Ariane 6 can launch, and viable through the ability to mass produce thrusters at the Elche factory.
But what will really matter will be the configurations capable of landing, which will lower the cost of launching. In its reusable version, the Miura Next Heavy will be able to place 19.5 tons in low Earth orbit.
PLD Space hopes to expand the Miura Proximum in the next three years and the Miura Next Heavy one or two years after the inaugural flight of the Miura Proximum, which will be marketed to European and international companies.
From Miura 1 to Miura 5
Less than a year ago, PLD Space was in front of us in the morning hours, with images of engineers and their families flying in microgravity. On October 7, 2023, the company of Elche Miura 1 was successfully launchedthe first precursor of Spain’s new Miura 5 rocket, whose height is triple.
PLD had set out to damage the pad as little as possible, but instead, the Miura 1 made a perfect takeoff. What profited himself?. The second flight model of the Miura 1 (actually the third) did not fly, and now hangs from the ceiling in the new PLD Space factory in Elche.
Despite the difference in size, the successful launch of the Miura 1 served to validate or disassemble 70% of the components of the Miura 5, whose maiden flight will take place at the end of 2025 from French Guiana.
They already have a lot of science-like thanks to the Miura 1, in what no one in Spain had done until the development of a small rocket, such as a series of aluminum welding 2000.
The data collected during the flight gave plD about 1,000 points for action and improvement accelerate the development of the Miura 5. Some pieces were translated directly. Others had to change, such as the valves of the engine, which had up to eight iterations for better performance.
The TEPREL-C Minor 5 machines will begin testing in Teruel in March of next year. The maiden flight of the rocket is optimistically scheduled for late 2025. But when it comes to PLD Space, the line between hope and determination is never clear.
Image | Matías S. Zavia (Xataka), PLD Space
