rocket

PLD Space, one step away from becoming the company that has developed an orbital rocket the fastest

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Whether in the Elche factory, on a test bench at Teruel airport or on the launch pad under construction in French Guiana, PLD Space is abuzz. The company advances one milestone per week and he tells us why: the Miura 5 rocket is practically ready at the design level. “I would tell you that it is 99%,” says Raúl Torres, CEO of the company, in an interview with Xataka. Candidate to become the Europe’s first private orbital rocketthe Miura 5 is about to finish the Critical Design Review (CDR) and take shape for the first time. “Now we are finishing the QM1 qualification models and starting the QM2, which means that shortly, and I’ll leave it there, we are going to have a first teachable Miura 5,” he reveals for the first time. This first fully integrated model will not fly, but will allow PLD to close engineering fronts and carry out key tests before the end of the year. If everything goes according to plan, the rocket chosen to take off will begin assembly in January. “The idea would be that in May we would be in Guyana to start doing the combined tests with the French space agency CNES,” confirms Torres, adjusting the schedule that originally pointed to a launch at the end of 2025. It is not an unexpected adjustment, but it was pending official confirmation since Chris Larmour, founder of Orbex, PLD’s British competitor, 1,000 euros were bet with Raúl Torres that the Miura 5 would not fly in 2025. Raúl accepted the bet. Will he pay Larmour now? “We have invited him to come sign the rocket at the end of the year, we are waiting for him to answer us,” says Torres. “I would like Orbex to also invite me at the end of the year to sign their rocket. Mine is going to sign it, so I only have to pay half of the bet.” Works in Guayana, lighting in Teruel If the Miura 5 flies in early 2026, PLD Space will be one of the fastest companies to have developed an orbital launcher, which is even more impressive considering the Spanish company’s financing compared to several of its competitors. But PLD Space is not starting from scratch. The successful launch of the Miura 1 suborbital rocket in October 2023 was the graduation of a team that now faces a higher challenge. “Miura 1 has been like primary school, ESO and high school, and now we are at university,” explains Torres. “That is why we have developed Miura 5 so quickly, because we have gone one step ahead with many developments.” Technologies such as the stage power system, cryogenic protections or the welding techniques of the Miura 5 are a direct inheritance from its little brother. However, “university” brings new and more complicated subjects. The most obvious technological leap is in the Miura 5 engines. The five TEPREL-C of the first stage and the vacuum-optimized TEPREL-C of the second They are beasts of another categoryespecially due to the introduction of turbopumps. PLD has developed most of the critical components in-house, such as liquid oxygen and kerosene valves. Combustion chambers are manufactured by electroplating copper and nickel, turbopump housings are 3D printed, and high-precision rotating components are machined. The objective is to achieve a production rate that allows one engine to be manufactured every two weeks in the Elche warehouse. PLD Space passed a fundamental milestone on October 6 with the first static ignition of a fully integrated TEPREL-C Vac in its facilities at Teruel airport. With 75 kN of thrust, it is one of the most powerful vacuum engines ever powered by a private company in Europe. But the real muscle of the rocket will be in the five TEPREL-C engines responsible for takeoff. Each one has 190 kN of thrust, almost double than its competitors. When will we see the first roar of a Miura 5 with the TEPREL-C fully integrated? “In one quarter you should expect the long and qualification tests of both the first and second stages, and also the restart test of both engines,” Torres told Xataka. To validate each component, PLD Space has also deployed new infrastructure at the Teruel airport. The T3 bench has been the protagonist of the static and compression tests of the rocket structures. Valves and gas generators are tested on bench T6. Bench T7 will be used for qualification of first stage Teprel-C engines and second stage long duration ignitions. The T9 bench will be used to test the separation between the first and second stages. Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers across the Atlantic, PLD Space construction in French Guiana has begun. PLD has become the first New Space company to begin construction of its own launch base at the Guyana Space Center. “It is very likely that Miura 5 will be before Kourou’s works,” says Torres. The first structures of the launch pad They are being built in Spain. The rocket should arrive in South America in May. Advances in reuse since flight 1 Inspired by SpaceX, PLD does not conceive of a modern launcher without reuse. And their plan for the Miura 5 is to start collecting landing data from the first flight. If it achieves stage separation on its debut launch, the rocket will perform a maneuver boostback like that of the Falcon 9. “In flight one mission, in the test flight that we will do next year, we are going to try to re-enter the stage,” confirms Torres. After separation, the rocket will turn around and turn on its central engine for a few seconds to brake. “The booster will be ready to re-enter. We don’t want to miss the slightest opportunity to collect data.” And he talks about data because he does not expect to recover the rocket. “Evidently, it’s not going to happen the first time.” The first flight won’t even have a parachute. The main objective is to survive reentry from a hypersonic speed at Mach … Read more

A huge fuel tank has fallen from heaven in Argentina. And we already have suspicious: a Chinese rocket

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The afternoon is almost always quiet in the small Chaco town of Puerto Tirol, north of Argentina. On Thursday, that tranquility was interrupted by an object fallen from heaven. He had appeared on a rural property whose owner did not hesitate to call the police. The police cordoned off the area waiting for firefighters. All the investigations are already made on the Internet. What is known. The object measures 1.70 meters long by 1.20 meters in diameter. It is metallic, has a cylindrical shape and is covered with carbon fiber or a similar compound material, so it is surely a pressurized propellant tank, a piece of the space rockets known as Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV). When a satellite or a rocket re -enters the atmosphere, most of its body is burned by pressure. These containers, on the other hand, are designed to support very high pressures, so it is not strange that they survive intact. Or judging by the photos, somewhat chamuscados and frayed. What is suspected. The first identification came from the hand of the Caribbean Astronomy Society (SAC) in A Facebook post. They confirmed that it looks like a piece of space vehicle, specifically a COPV. And they pointed out that, of the most recent releases, the main candidate is a Chinese rocket released the day before. The analysis of the trajectory seems to confirm suspicions. The astrophysic and renowned Jonathan McDowell satellite tracker He corroborated this hypothesisstating that the object is “probably” the tank of the fourth stage of a Chinese jielong-3 rocket. From China to Chaco. The private company China Rocket had launched on Wednesday the eighth mission of its Jielong-3 rocket. The Y8 mission took off From a maritime platform At 07:56 UTC to put 12 satellites of the Geely Future Mobility constellation in orbit, a positioning and communications service of the Chinese automotive giant Geely. After displaying the satellites, the fourth stage of the rocket continued to orbit the earth until 9:00 UTC of the next day, when It was sighted disintegrated in the sky 15 kilometers from Puerto Tyrol. Most likely, it will not be completely burned and the deposit survived the fall. A questionable history. China has earned in recent years. The most notorious case is that of the CZ-5B state rocket, whose central stage of more than 20 tons is designed to reach the orbit and then fall to the earth unpredictably within a period of days or weeks. The reality is that this behavior is changing, and both state and private companies are actively providing their rockets on the ability to actively extend, keeping some fuel and after deploying satellites. The problem is not that. But the space garbage, and that is that the Earth’s orbit has become a landfill. There are all kinds of dead satellites and rockets in the terrestrial orbit that gradually approach the earth due to atmospheric braking. With the rise of satellite megaconstellations, every day they re -enter the atmosphere an average of three large pieces of space garbage. And in this case they do it without any control. As a result, incidents in inhabited areas are increasingly frequent. In March 2024, a fragment of a battery pallet discarded from the International Space Station crossed the roof of a house. In January 2025, A half ton ring He appeared in a town in Kenya. In February, several fragments of a spacex rocket They fell near the city of Poland. The Earth is very large and mostly depopulated or covered with water, but it is a matter of time that something happens. Therefore, space agencies such as ESA They are promoting a commitment of “zero waste” to harden the regulations of their own missions. It is necessary, yes, a global consensus. Images | Llitory region In Xataka | The fireball that crossed Spain on Sunday will not be the last one: with 8,000 Starlinks in orbit, it will be a habitual show

Airtificial will manufacture parts of the first Spanish rocket at its Jerez plant

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Two of the most popular names of the Spanish high -tech industry have joined their paths. Airtificial, whose factory we visited a few years ago for the presentation of The first hyperloop capsulewill manufacture from now on reusable components for the first Spanish rocket, Miura 5 of PLD Space. Jerez composite. From the dream of magnetic levitation in vacuum tubes to the much more tangible reality of access to space. Aerospace & Defense Airtificial has agreed manufacture at its headquarters A series of composite material panels for PLD Space. They are, specifically, shields for the nozzles of the new Treprel-C engines. Critical elements that serve as a structural support, channeling the thrust of the engines to avoid vibrations that deformed the nozzles, and at the same time of thermal insulation, acting as a barrier that protects the rest of the systems of the lock of the heat of combustion. Why anestificial. The new PLD Space provider has 30 years of composite experience, a more light material than the metal that will reduce the weight of the Miura 5. In the space industry, less weight means greater efficiency and more load to orbit with the same fuel. In 2018, Airtificial acquired international fame after the presentation of Quintero One, a 30 -meter capsule made in carbon fiber compound material. It was a Hyperlooptt design, one of the companies that tried to materialize high -speed transportation promoted by Elon Musk. Today Hyperloop is considered One of the great technological failures of the last decade. Although Hyperlooptt continues to try, Virgin Hyperloop One closed, forcing the Spanish Zelleros to make adjustments. Years later, Airtificial has made the leap to the space industry. Miura 5 is not a promise. PLD Space has A detailed plan to become the European rocket factoryand the pieces begin to fit. After the debut flight of Miura 1, the Miura 5 of 34 meters high and five engines in its first stage is taking shape. Although your body is made of aluminum, it uses composed materials in areas such as cofia or the covers of the engines, which will be key For your future reusable version: PLD Space will try to recover the first stage of Miura 5 after the shock, and on this depends on the resistance of the components. The company is immersed in the qualification of the new Treprel-C engines, which will burn bioqueroseno and liquid oxygen. It is the first time they develop Rocket engines with turbobombs in Spain. The confidence in the project is such that there is already a date marked in red on the calendar to see the first Miura 5. The CEO Raúl Torres It is optimistic: “December 15 of this year. That is day D”. Images | Hyperlooptt, PLD Space In Xataka | This is the Spanish rocket Miura 5: Pld Space has presented it in images and hints that version 1.2 can land

Flight 10 was a success and showed that the rocket can launch Starlink satellites

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After Three failed attempts And the occasional catastrophic explosion, Spacex can breathe calm. He Starship’s tenth test flight He has fulfilled all the objectives that until now had resisted. Short. He larger rocket in the world Not only did it take off and reached space. He also displayed his first payload, a engine in vacuum re -founded and survived an infernal reentry to merit in a controlled way in the Indian Ocean. Starship’s tenth test flight demonstrates that Spacex’s iterative design still works. And although the vision of a totally reusable ship to colonize Mars is still far, Starship can already start throwing Starlink satellites. A promising start. At the scheduled time, the 33 Raptor engines of the Super Heavy propeller came alive, promoting with a deafening rumble the mole of more than 120 meters high. Although one of the engines failed halfway, it did not affect the mission at all, demonstrating the redundancy of the system. As he burned his 4,900 tons of propellant, the huge Starship rocket exceeded the phase of greater aerodynamic stress and hot separation, lighting the motors from the upper stage before separating. The Super Heavy began its return, but this time it did not look for a soft landing, but to complete a series of risky maneuvers. A skyscraper floating in the air. Booster 16 successfully performed its air in the air to change trajectory. After planning for a few minutes with its aerodynamic grilles and approaching the Gulf of Mexico, intentionally deactivated one of its central engines to test if a backup engine could take over. The most incredible moment came just after, when the 70 -meter rocket used two engines to fly over the ocean in stationary flight before turning off and meriting. As A commentator said“A 20 -story building in the air has just floated.” A milestone that demonstrates to what extent Spacex has controlled the capture of the super heavy with the launch tower, although the reentry is hard. The dispenser fish in action. While the Super Heavy completed its mission, the Starship 37 ship continued on its way to space. Once in his suborbital trajectory, the time for two of the most anticipated tests of the day came. First, the opening of the load bay and the first deployment of a payload. Using a mechanism that Remember a caramel dispenser fishthe ship eject one by one eight Starlink satellite simulators. This test is essential, since Starship’s future as a heavy load vehicle depends on it. Everything ready to launch Starlinks. Spacex plans to launch up to 60 Starlink V3 satellites in future Starship missions, adding 60 tbps capacity to the constellation with each launch, A more than 20 times higher figure to which a Falcon 9 can carry with the current V2 Mini. The rocket is able to reach orbit, display load (yes, it takes a minute per satellite) and then exorbitant. Flight 10 has returned to demonstrate the redempted of a huster engine in a vacuum. This capacity is indispensable to stop the rocket in a controlled way or perform a translunar injection for NASA Artemis missions. Surviving hell to tell. After an hour of flight, Starship began his reentry in the Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. This is the time when the previous missions had failed. On this flight, however, the ship showed a robustness that reminds of the first releases. Although the cameras on board showed visible damage (some parts of the ailerons burned and the engines bay suffered a small explosion), the crucial thing is that Starship maintained aerodynamic control throughout the descent. Guided by its spoilers, the incandescent plasma of the resentment with total stability furrowed. The flight culminated with gentle and controlled ameter In the Indian Ocean. Although the ship was quite chamuscada, the simple fact of having completed the reentry and frightening in this way after three consecutive failures is a gigantic victory for Spacex. It is the definitive proof that Starship can start with Starlink launches. Image | Spacex Em xataka | It was hired by Spacex at age 14. Now, with 16, the young genius has turned his back on Elon Musk to go to Wall Street

The highest rocket in the world again crossed the skies after the disaster

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Starship needs to get out of the bump. After A long streak of explosionsSpacex looks for a clean flight that allane the way to the new rocket generation. Booster 16 and Ship 37 are already stacked on the launch platform for the tenth flight. This will be the Penultimate Mission of Current Design Before moving on to the third generation starship. Date and time of launch. If everything goes as planned, the takeoff will take place this Sunday, August 24, in an afternoon schedule that will allow observing the reentry of the ship over the Indian Ocean in broad daylight. The launch window for the Starship’s tenth flight It opens this Sunday at 18:30 CDT, local time of Starbase, Texas. In other cities: Madrid, Spain (CEST, UTC+2): Monday, August 25 at 01:30 Mexico City, Mexico (CST, UTC – 6): Sunday, August 24 at 5:30 p.m. Buenos Aires, Argentina (Art, UTC-3): Sunday, August 24 at 8:30 p.m. Bogotá, Colombia (COT, UTC-5): Sunday, August 24 at 6:30 p.m. Lima, Peru (Pet, UTC-5): Sunday, August 24 at 6:30 p.m. Santiago, Chile (CLT, UTC-4): Sunday, August 24 at 7:30 p.m. Caracas, Venezuela (Vet, UTC-4): Sunday, August 24 at 7:30 p.m. How to see the live flight. As usual, Spacex will broadcast the launch Through its website and of Your official account in X. The broadcast will begin approximately 30 minutes before takeoff. For the most enthusiastic, YouTube channels like Nasaspaceflight and Everyday Astronaut They will offer live coverage with their own cameras from the vicinity of Starbase. In Spanish, the coverage of Space border, Mission control, Manuel Mazzanti either Spacexstormamong others. A streak that must end. This tenth attempt comes after a few months complicated for Spacex. The company has lost Four consecutive shipsturning each launch into An invaluable data source to improve its design, but also in a reminder of the complexity involved in building the highest and most powerful rocket in the world. Flight 9, which took place on May 27, ended with the loss of both stages. Booster 14, In his second flightdisintegrated during an experimental landing maneuver, subject to an angle of attack that is too aggressive that its structure did not support. Shortly after, Ship 35 reached the scheduled speed to put out its engines, but suffered a leak in the pressurization system that prevented him from completing his goals and condemned it to turn without control. As if that were not enough, the ship that had to star in this tenth flight, the Ship 36, violently exploded at the test base on June 18 during a fuel load. The culprit, according to Spacex, was a secondary nitrogen tank with structural damage that were overlooked. With this history, the pressure on the new prototypes is maximum. A flight full of experiments. Far from being conservative, Spacex has designed an ambitious mission to continue taking the vehicle to the limit and demonstrating that previous failures are solved. The Super Heavy propeller will not be caught by the tower. Instead, it will go to the Gulf of Mexico for controlled amelution while performing complex tests. Booster 16 will repeat the controlled turn that was already tested on flight 9 to save fuel in the return maneuver, after the separation of stages. But this time, it will intentionally deactivate one of the three central landing engines to test whether a backup engine can take over. The test will end with the propeller making a stationary flight on the ocean using only two engines before falling into the water. The ship 37, meanwhile, has the mission of finally fulfilling the objectives that its predecessors did not achieve. He will try for the first time to open your load gate in space to display eight Starlink satellite models. He will tasta again the redempted of a Raptor engine to perform a controlled orbit outlet. And will fly without some thermal tiles to stress vulnerable areas. In addition, it will test new materials for thermal shield, such as metal tiles (one of them with active refrigeration), and a more aggressive reentry profile. The penultimate test before the redesign. This tenth flight is not one more. It is, together with the eleventh, the last opportunity for Spacex to collect data from the current rocket design before making the jump the Starship 3. This new version, which we have already seen components, promises a deep redesign with larger and more robust fins, and a greater structural capacity. A success on flight 10 would be a fundamental moral and technical impulse for the program, demonstrating that the rapid Iteration of Spacex works and that the path to a totally reusable launch system, although full of explosions, continues to advance. Whatever happens, the show is guaranteed. Image | Spacex In Xataka | Spacex has asked Mexico to stop invading its property and returns the starship pieces that fell into the country

Russia wants to know how trips will affect us to Mars, so you will throw a thousand flies and 75 mice in a rocket

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He Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstanhe has witnessed the launch of the Soyuz-2.1b rocket that has put the mission into orbit Bion-M No. 2. This Russian space agency project, Roscosmos, is a crucial step in the investigation of the effects of the microgravityand above all, the Cosmic radiationabout living organisms. But on board they are not human, but travel flies or mice, among other organisms. A varied crew on the ship. As if it were Noah’s ark, 75 mice are found in this ship, more than 1,000 fruit fliescellular crops, microorganisms and plant seeds. For a month, these ‘bionautas’ will orbit the earth in a polo pole trajectory, at an altitude that will expose them to the levels of cosmic radiation significantly higher than those experienced in the International Space Station. A “high -tech mice hotel”. The true protagonists of this mission are the 75 mice, who will travel in a specially designed passenger cabin: a “mini hotel”. Each unit is equipped with food, lighting, ventilation and waste systems to guarantee their well -being during the trip. In addition, chips have been implemented in some of the rodents to be able to monitor the constants in real time. Scientists have divided mice into three groups to compare the results. The first will remain on earth in normal conditions, which is what we call in science ‘control group’. The second will live in a land laboratory in flight equipment identical to those of the satellite. The third group, of course, will be the one who travels to space. In this way, the effects of the space flight of other variables can be isolated. Why are they chosen to mice. It has already become an iconic image to see how in biomedical research Mouse is used as the ideal test ‘subject’. And it is not a coincidence. The mouse has a genetic very similar to human, they have a short life cycle to see changes throughout several generations and are very economical to maintain and feed. On the other hand, for this specific investigation the mice They are very radiation sensitiveso they make it the ideal subjects to give us more information on the effect of this physical phenomenon. It has important implications for our health. The objective of this mission is clear: knowing how this radiation will affect astronauts traveling to the moon or Mars. Cosmic radiation In the long term you can damage cell DNAdrastically increasing the risks of long -term cancer, and what you want is to quantify the real damage and prove countermedons as armor for ships and drugs that avoid these undesirable effects. But it also has medical applications here on Earth. Its results can give us more weapons to fight aging, since the rapid loss of bone and muscle mass suffered by astronauts is a perfect model to study osteoporosis and sarcopenia to find new treatments. There are more research apart from mice. In collaboration with the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, the mission transports 16 test tubes with dust simulations and lunar rocks. The objective is to study how radiation and space emptiness affect these materials, information of great value for the future development of lunar bases. Other experiments on board will investigate the susceptibility of organisms to radiation, the development of new life support systems and possible medical benefits in the earth derived from spatial biological research. Continuing the legacy of the bion-m No. 1. This mission It was launched in 2013 And he also spent 30 days in the orbit. However, the new mission will orbitate a 97 degree inclination, which will increase exposure to cosmic radiation compared to its predecessor. It is not the first time that it is investigated in space. There are many precedents that exist of space missions that have aimed at investigation. For example, I know analyzed the potential risks of fertility in space in mice or even the Japanese wanted to see If you can procreate in space through mouse embryos. Images | Spacex Joshua J. Cotten In Xataka | Spacex is on its way to having more money than NASA. He has succeeded, in part, because he does not pay taxes

launch satellites to space without rocket

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Adak is a small island at the western end of Alaska. With a military past for its proximity to Russia, today it has less than 400 inhabitants. In this almost pospocalyptic scenario, A Californian startup called spinlaunch Plan to build a giant centrifugator for catapult satellites to space. The perfect place for a space catapult. Although the argument of a science fiction film seems like the company, the company has signed an alliance With The Aleut Corporation, owner of much of Adak Island, to build its orbital launch platform there. The choice of the island is not accidental. Its northern latitude and its location in the Pacific allow polar and high inclination launch trajectories without the need to fly over populated areas. Air and sea traffic are also minimal. Adak was an important air base of the United States until 1997, so it has an operating airport and a deep water port, which would greatly facilitate the logistics of building and operating the installation. In addition, the island has enormous wind, hydraulic and geothermal potential that would allow feeding the electric centrifuger with renewable sources. How the spinlaunch centrifuger works. The Californian startup He did a concept of concept in 2022. The system is essentially a kinetic accelerator sealed in vacuum. Inside, a carbon fiber arm rotates the projectile that the satellite contains at hypersonic speeds, reaching 7,500 km/h. At the precise moment, the projectile is released and triggered to heaven by a fireplace. Once it reaches an altitude of 60 km, where the atmosphere is very dim, a small engine turns on to give the final thrust that allows the orbital speed to reach. In one of its most spectacular tests, They placed a camera aboard To see it in the first person. The greatest technical challenge is the brutal acceleration that subjects the payload to forces of up to 10,000 g. Spinlaunch has collaborated with NASA to demonstrate that satellites specially designed for centrifuging can survive the extreme trip. But although Keep working In perfecting the system, it has had to diversify its business so as not to fail. Launches in rockets to finance the tyrachinas. After years of silence, Spinlaunch reappeared in April 2025 with a plan that left many of his perplexed followers: displaying his own constellation telecommunications satellites. The most surprising: the 280 satellites of the Meridian project would be put in orbit using traditional rockets. Although many thought it was a tacit form of leave the catapultthe project on Adak island shows that the intention is to move on. In the words of David Wrenn, CEO of Spinlaunch: “The launch market is relatively small compared to the economic potential of satellite communications, more focused on costs than benefits.” So, if Meridian is successful, the centrigurator in the most remote town in the United States could end up seeing the light in the most post -epocalyptic environment imaginable. Image | Paxson WoelberSpinlaunch In Xataka | What to use rockets when you can use kinetic energy: this is the spectacular Spinlaunch space release system

PLD Space has a detailed plan to become the European rocket factory. And the pieces have started fitting

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With Miura 1, PLD Space became the first private company in Europe to successfully launch a suborbital rocket. Since then, the Spanish company has stepped on the accelerator with a project in mind: launching Miura 5 in 2026. Today the first orbital rocket in Spain is not a project, but a tangible reality that is being assembled in Elche. PLD Space It has already manufactured All its components and prepares to start your engines for the first time. The Treprel-C roars in Teruel. A rocket is, in essence, an engine with a large fuel tank. Miura 5 will have five Treprel-C engines fed by turbobomba in its first stage, generating a combined thrust of 950 kN, 30 times more than Miura 1. The development of the most important component of the rocket advances to counterreloj. The company already tested in its test banks of Teruel’s airport combustion cameras, validating manufacturing technologies such as copper and nickel electrode. The turbobombs, the largest developed by a European startup, They were also tested with a complete ignition before its final integration into the engine. Elements such as gas generators and cryogenic valves were designed, manufactured and tested internally following the lessons learned during the development of MIURA 1. A process that has culminated with the start of the engine series manufacturing: there are already four engines of the Teprel-C family in production for the final qualification campaign. Aluminum plates have gained shape. Parallel to the development of engines, the construction of the rocket structure itself advances at a good pace. In a recent videoThe company details how its Elche factory has been working on the molding and the test of the metal structures (the fuel tanks) and of composite materials (the separation module between stages and the cofia that will protect the satellites of the customers). These components have already undergone all kinds: tests at room temperature, cryogenic, and with compression and flexion loads to ensure that the structure will support the brutal conditions of the launch. The idea is to refine the design with the results of the prototypes to maximize their performance. After validating the engineering models, PLD Space is now manufacturing the final qualification components, the step prior to the series production of Miura 5. The launch ramp is running. The company signed a development contract With the French Space Agency (CNES) to build its own launch complex in the European Space Port of Kouroou, in the French Guiana. The civil works will begin this summer in the same place where France launched its first rocket, the Elm-Diamant. The location is unbeatable: its proximity to Ecuador will allow optimizing the trajectories of Miura 5 and launching heavier loads with less fuel. But PLD Space does not conform and has also signed an agreement with Oman to build a Second launch base In the Etlaq Space Puerto. This movement will give direct access to the Mercado de Oriente. A plan to be the European rocket factory. At the same time that Miura 5 develops, PLD Space is raising an industrial complex to manufacture it in series. The company has designed a plan to climb its production to 32 units per year by 2030. This industrial effort is based on a supply chain of almost 400 partners, mostly Spanish and Europeans, which has invested 50 million euros Since the beginning of 2024. PLD Space has chained a series of crucial milestones that draw a very clear and ambitious roadmap, as European confidence demonstrates. Back of the European Space Agency. PLD Space is already officially one of the five companies preselected by ESA to guarantee sovereign access to space in Europe. The European Launcher Challenge has awarded contracts of up to 169 million euros to the five companies, among which are the French Maiaspace, the British Orbex and the Germans Isar Aerospace and Rocket Factory Augsburg. PLD Space has proposed to Miura 5 as its immediate operating pitcher already His future heavy and reusable rocket, the Miura Nextlike the next step. The ESA final decision will be taken in November 2025, but the pre -selection already positions the Spanish company as a key actor and an industrial leader in the European launch sector. Image | PLD Space In Xataka | 12 years after making fun of Spacex and his idea of landing rockets, Arianegroup is creating a European mini-falcon 9

Spacex plays background with the new version of the rocket

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The Starship 36 has flown through the air, in the worst sense. Spacex was preparing a second static ignition trial when a brutal explosion made all the windows in the metropolitan area of ​​Brownsville, Texas. What we know. On Thursday at 23:00, local time in Starbase, the ship that Spacex was preparing for Starship’s tenth flight exploded during the fuel load in a Massey’s test bench, which is how the test zone is known. It has not been to regret victims, since the area was clear for the test. But when the smoke column disappeared, Ship 36, which was going to fly at the end of the month, was no longer. It was seen and not seen. The NSF cameras They captured a sudden flash, followed by a large detonation and another giant just below. Since the ship exploded in the 10 minutes before the ignition test, Spacex had already loaded liquid oxygen and was starting to load liquid methane. The fuel deposits were approximately 10%, which hopefully reduced the scope of the damage. What we don’t know. Although the destruction of the ship is taken for granted, damage to the land infrastructure of Massey’s will not be clear until day. The worst news would be for the facilities to have been useless, which would considerably delay the starship 37 tests, which is already assembled and in the engine integration phase. He Spacex statement It only clarifies that the company is “actively working to ensure the test site” and that “there are no risks for residents of surrounding communities.” The program touches background. This is one of the most important setbacks for the Martian rocket of Spacex, which has touched the bottom after three consecutive launches of the Starship Block 2, the new version of the ship. Of the six second generation starship built: The first exploded during flight 7 for vibrations related to an unforeseen harmonic response in the lower zone of engines bay The second exploded during flight 8 for an unforeseen mixture of propellant during the ascent phase, which caused the explosion of an engine The third exploded during flight 9 for a leak that made him lose control of attitude during the suborbital trajectory, disintegrating himself in the reentry The fourth has exploited on land during the propellant load prior to a static ignition test in the test bench There are two Starship Block 2 to validate before Spacex passes to the third generation starship. The company has not yet been able to prove the satellite deployment due to explosions or, on flight 9, a failure in the door of the load bay. It also has delay with a series of demonstrations related to the thermal shield of the ship, which prevents the complete reuse of the rocket. Image | D Wise, NSF

If you have heard a roar at Teruel airport it is because PLD Space has just tested the new Miura 5 rocket engine

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A thermal chamber pointing to the test table of PLD Space At Teruel Airport, he has witnessed the first tests of the Treprel-C engine, the heart of the Spanish rocket Miura 5. Wake up, Miura, wakes up. PLD Space engineers have moved the first engines of the new Treprel-C family to the test zone for a series of integrated hardware trials. With these tests, the preparations for the flight rating campaign finalize, with which they will valid the design and tolerance of the motor to integrate it into the rest of the rocket. As Pld Space has advanced In his X profilethe new manufacturing technologies of combustion cameras that they have tried have “very good look”. A jump to the big leagues. The launch of Miura 1 served to validate all kinds of processes and technologies Internally developed, but the Miura 5 engine is much more complex. We talk about a two -stage orbital pitcher, designed to Place satellites of up to a ton In equatorial orbit. With a height of 35.7 meters, Miura 5 needs five teprel-C engines to rise. The engine is a direct evolution of the technologies validated by Miura 1 with an important qualitative leap: it is a turbobombic fueled engine in which the reliability apart from performance prevails. Treprel-C. The new Treprel engine (acronym for “Spanish technology for reusable spatial propulsion for pitchers”) generates 190 kn of thrust at sea level: 950 kN in total for the first stage of the Miura 5. The second stage of the rocket carries an optimized version for the vacuum. These engines, with a height comparable to that of a person, presume to have the combustion chamber of liquid propellant developed by a commercial company with private capital in Europe. They feed on RP-1 bioquerosen and liquid oxygen. Manufactured in Elche. The new PLD Space plant in Elche, 12,500 square meters, is designed to produce up to six MIURA 5 and 60 Treprel-C motors per year, which gives an idea of ​​the project ambition. The company’s facilities at Teruel airport have become, since Miura 1, in the epicenter of static tests. At the end of 2024, PLD Space lifted a 20-meter test tower for cryogenic and pressure test tower, and has built a test bench capable of trying three treprel-C simultaneously. The debut of Miura 5 is scheduled for early 2026. Images | PLD Space In Xataka | The “first private rocket in Europe” has been vacant and someone is getting hollow: Miura 5 of Pld Space

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