After successfully completing the first-ever totally private European rocket launch this month, the Spanish rocket company PLD Space announced on Friday that it will be launching its first orbital mission from French Guiana in the first quarter of 2026.
The startup claimed that launching a recoverable suborbital Miura-1 rocket from a location in southwest Spain was a “complete success,” despite the fact that the rocket could not be recovered after it plunged into the ocean. According to the enterprise, the test had other objectives than recovering the rocket from the sea.
A market that some analysts predict will reach $1 trillion by 2030 has seen the emergence of new rocket businesses as a result of plans to launch hundreds of internet-beaming satellites in the coming years.
PLD plans to create the larger Miura-5, a total orbital launcher, using the 30 million euro ($32 million) suborbital test data. It stated that 1,000 components have been found so far that must be improved to create Miura-5.
“Miura-5 will be ready in two years. Then we will transport it to Kourou (French Guiana) to try to make a first launch in the first quarter of 2026,” co-founder and CEO Raul Torres told reporters in Madrid.
Next year, according to PLD Space, it hopes to sign the first legally binding contracts with customers.
According to co-founder Raul Verdu, it has garnered interest from potential clients for contracts totaling roughly 320 million euros ($339 million), sufficient to finish about ten or twelve Miura-5 launches.
With Virgin Orbit’s unsuccessful orbital rocket launch attempt from Britain in January, Europe’s efforts to build the capability to launch small satellites into space are coming under closer scrutiny. With that system, a modified Boeing 747’s launcher was released.
$1 equals 0.9446 euros.
