PLD's challenges 18 months after the announced maiden flight of its Miura 5 rocket
- Getting the propulsion system up to speed and beyond
- It cannot be ruled out that this will be in 2026, 2027...
The next 18 months are key for the business future of PLD Space, the first private Spanish company whose ultimate goal is to offer orbital launch services with its own rockets.
The year and a half between now and the end of December 2025 is decisive for PLD for several reasons. One of them is that the company based in Elche - 27 kilometres from Alicante - expects a massive response to its Miura 5 Spark programme.
This is a worldwide initiative to encourage universities, research centres and companies from all over the world to trust in the Miura 5, the commercial launcher that PLD is developing. The company founded in 2011 by Raúl Verdú and Raúl Torres has just launched a general call to place tiny devices, experiments and tests in low Earth orbit... at no cost to those who decide to get their hands on the Miura 5.
What PLD is aiming for is for "R&D&I centres, official institutions, commercial entities and students to submit creative proposals to solve existing challenges on Earth from space", emphasises PLD. In its recent international communication campaign, PLD insists that "the first demonstration flight of the Miura 5 is planned for the last quarter of 2025". And the second "is planned for the first quarter of 2026".
But 18 months remain before the announced first flight of the Miura 5 - a two-stage launcher more than 34 metres high, equivalent to an 11-storey building - can become a reality by the end of next year. Industry professionals consulted consider it ‘practically unfeasible’ that such an important milestone can be achieved in such a short period of time. There is no shortage of reasons.
Getting the propulsion system up to speed and beyond
One of the first shortcomings is that the rocket engines for the two propulsion stages of the Miura 5 are not yet ready. PLD has yet to finalise the development of two powerful new versions of the Teprel family, which PLD's engineers are still working on the components and mechanisms.
The tests are to be carried out on the company's test bench at its facilities at Teruel airport, but it is possible that they could be carried out elsewhere in Spain or abroad. The engine is the Teprel-C engine, which is based on an open cycle architecture powered by a turbo pump driven by a gas generator.
Once it has been certified after being able to operate for 182 seconds and provide a thrust of 950 Kilo Newton, the propulsion system of the main stage, which consists of five Teprel-Cs and which must operate in perfect synchronisation, has to be fully tested.
Also to be tested and certified is the so-called Teprel-C vacuum version, the single rocket engine that will power the Miura 5's second stage, which must be proven to operate for 420 seconds and provide a thrust of 50 Kilo Newton. Its technology has to be adapted to the micro-gravity conditions in low orbit and also be capable of re-ignition.
PLD's management is relying on the lessons learned from the results of the Miura 1 maiden flight in October 2023, but the technological leap between the two micro-launchers is enormous. It should not be forgotten that the Miura 5 first stage is intended to be recoverable and reusable, involving a critical new navigation, guidance and control system.
It cannot be ruled out that this will be in 2026, 2027...
In terms of infrastructures. PLD's new factory where the Miura 5 production line is to be assembled is still under construction and the facilities for the launch of the Spanish micro-launcher from French Guiana have not even begun. PLD expects the inauguration to take place before the end of July and work at the Kourou space base to begin in the second half of the year.
PLD's public relations efforts are going from strength to strength. The company has seen its expectations confirmed in recent days with the visit of the Director General of the European Space Agency (ESA), the Austrian Josef Aschbacher, and its Director of Space Transport, the Danish Toni Tolker-Nielsen. Both travelled to Elche to see first-hand the progress of the Miura 5, accompanied by the President of the Spanish Space Agency (AEE), the Minister of Science Diana Morant, and the Director of this institution, Juan Carlos Cortés.
The European and Spanish officials held a technical meeting with the executive president of PLD, Ezequiel Sánchez, and the two co-founders, Raúl Verdú and Raúl Torres. They also met with the company's more than 170 professionals, to whom Josef Aschbacher said he was ‘very impressed’ by their work. In his X account, Aschbacher stated that "the Spanish space industry is very competitive and first-rate in almost all areas".
ESA and ESA, together with CDTI, Spanish banks and companies are funding the development of Miura 5, the success of which is essential for the credibility of the national launcher industry. PLD's merit is impressive, but a maiden flight by the end of 2025 is impossible in practice. And ESA, ESA and PLD know it. It cannot be ruled out that following the formula used by the European Agency with Ariane 6 and by PLD with Miura 1, the first launch of Miura 5 will be postponed by six months in a little over half a year, then another six months and so on for two or three years.
The Spanish authorities have the facts, they must be realistic and make things clear: a demonstration launch of the Miura 5 by the end of 2025 is not feasible. On the other hand, it is possible, although difficult, to have the development of the rocket completed by that date. Therefore, for PLD to keep announcing the first flight for 2025 seems unreasonable and is playing with the illusions of the good people.
In the meantime, PLD's most direct competition is moving ahead. The German companies Isar Aerospace and its micro-launcher Spectrum; Rocket Factory Augsburg with its RFA One; and the British company Orbex with Prime, are continuing with their testing schedule so that their first launches will take place in the remainder of 2024 or in 2025. We will see if they are capable.