PLD Space has won the second and final round of a Spanish government call to develop sovereign launch capabilities.
On 30 January 2023, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, through the country’s Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI), published a call for the development of a small satellite launcher for which it had made €45 million euros in funding available. The project was financed with European funds from the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan and managed through Spain’s Strategic Project for Aerospace Recovery and Economic Transformation (PERTE).
In July 2023, CDTI awarded €1.5 million in funding to PLD Space and a consortium led by Pangea Aerospace to develop their respective bids further.
Following a period of technical review, PLD Space announced that it had been selected as the winner of the second round of the call on 26 January, revealing that it would receive €40.5 million in funding to complete the development of Miura 5.
“Winning this public contract to create a strategic capability reinforces our position as a leading company to guarantee Europe’s access to space,” said PLD executive president Ezequiel Sánchez.
The amount was awarded through CDTI’s pre-commercial public purchasing instrument. This requires that the full amount be repaid, which, in this instance, will be made through the payment of royalties over the first 10 years of the commercial operation of Miura 5. PLD Space plans to launch the maiden Miura 5 flight by 2025, allowing it to begin its commercial operation in 2026.
The announcement of the CDTI award capped off a successful week for PLD Space. Earlier in the week, during the 16th European Space Conference, the company was selected by ESA and the European Commission as one of five companies that will launch institutional payloads into space as part of the Flight Ticket Initiative. The other four companies were Arianespace, Isar Aerospace, Orbex, and Rocket Factory Augsburg.
