MADRID Spanish company PLD Space said it plans its first test of a suborbital reusable rocket on Wednesday, as it seeks to put small satellites into space and capture a slice of a potential trillion-dollar market.
If successful, the launch from a military aerospace research centre in Huelva, in southern Spain, will be the first in Western Europe by a private company.
Plans by companies around the world to deploy thousands of internet-beaming satellites in the next few years have spawned a wave of new rocket companies targeting what some analysts expect will be a trillion-dollar space market by 2030.
Europe's efforts to develop capabilities to send small satellites into space are in focus after a failed rocket launch by Virgin Orbit from Cornwall in the UK in January this year. The company subsequently went bust and closed after a $36.4 million asset sale.
PLD Space would be taking the lead if its microlauncher "Miura 1" - named after a renowned breed of Spanish fighting bulls - is a success. The rocket is as tall as a three-storey building, has a 100-kg (220-lb) cargo capacity and can also be used to carry out zero-gravity experiments.
The company will gather as much data as possible to build "Miura 5", an orbital rocket which is now being developed.
"Miura 1" is expected to be launched at 0630 a.m. local time (0430 GMT) in a test flight that will last around six minutes, the company said.
The aim is for the rocket to reach an altitude of 80 kilometres (50 miles) at its peak, where the payload will be subjected to zero gravity.
Miura will remain there for two or three minutes before starting its descent at 2,800 kilometres per hour. The speed will be reduced thanks to a system on the rocket and the gradual deployment of two parachutes.
The rocket is due to land in the Atlantic, 60 kilometres off the coast of Huelva and will be recovered by a ship.
(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, additional reporting by Tim Hepher; editing by Inti Landauro and Sharon Singleton)
