The European Space Agency has selected Isar Aerospace, Rocket Factory Augsburg, PLD Space, MaiaSpace, and Orbex to proceed to the next phase of its European Launcher Challenge.
ESA unveiled the European Launcher Challenge following its November 2023 Council meeting in Seville, with a formal call for proposals published in March 2025. During the Paris Air Show in June, agency officials announced that they had received 12 proposals.
On 7 July, ESA revealed it had preselected five of the bids: two from Germany and one each from Spain, France, and the United Kingdom. According to the agency, the preselection evaluation criteria included technical maturity, business maturity and sustainability, the institutional market the proposed services aim to serve, and compliance with procurement rules.
The next phase of the proposal will see ESA open dialogue between the preselected companies and their respective Member States. This process will help formalise the proposal ahead of the agency’s Ministerial-Level Council meeting (CM25), which will take place toward the end of the year. At CM25, Member States are expected to formally commit funding to the initiative. Following the meeting, ESA will issue a Phase 2 call for proposals, which will be restricted to the preselected candidate companies. European Launcher Challenge contracts will then be awarded after a final evaluation period.
Companies that are selected may be awarded contracts covering two distinct components. Component A involves providing launch services for ESA institutional missions between 2026 and 2030. Component B focuses on demonstrating an upgraded launch service capability, including at least one flight demonstration. ESA has earmarked a proposed maximum of €169 million in funding per challenger to cover all activities under both components.
Traditional ESA programmes utilise the agency’s geo-return provisions, which allocate contracts to companies within each country in proportion to that country’s financial contribution to the programme. For the European Launcher Challenge, ESA has instead preselected the participating companies and will allow each host country to decide whether to fund its respective candidate. This may, as a result, put Germany in a position where it will need to choose whether to support just one or both of its preselected candidates.
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