MADRID Spanish rocket company PLD Space plans a first orbital launch from French Guiana in the first quarter of 2026, after it carried out the first fully private European rocket launch earlier this month, it said on Friday.
The startup launched a recoverable suborbital Miura-1 rocket from a site in southwestern Spain which was a "complete success," the company said, even though it could not recover the rocket after it dived into the sea. To recover the rocket from the sea was not a primary goal of the test, the company said.
Plans to deploy thousands of internet-beaming satellites in the next few years have spawned new rocket companies in what some analysts expect will be a $1 trillion market by 2030.
PLD will use the data gathered with the 30 million euro ($32 million) suborbital test to develop the larger Miura-5, a full orbital launcher. So far, they have identified 1,000 elements for improvement to develop Miura-5, it said.
"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.
PLD Space said it expects to sign the first binding agreements with clients next year.
So far, it has received interest from potential clients for contracts worth about 320 million euros ($339 million) which would be enough to complete around 10 or 12 Miura-5 launches, cofounder Raul Verdu said.
Europe's efforts to develop capabilities to send small satellites into space are in focus after a failed orbital rocket launch by Virgin Orbit from Britain in January. That system involved releasing the launcher from a converted Boeing 747.
($1 = 0.9446 euros)
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, editing by Inti Landauro and Hugh Lawson)
