Everything is ready at the PLD Space facilities in the Elche industrial park for the trip of his “creature”, the first spanish rocket that will travel to space, the Miura 1. It will also be first European private rocket to be put into orbit.
Next week it will leave these facilities in Elche where it has been assembled, heading to the INTA base (National Institute of Aerospace Technology) located in El Arenosillo, in Huelva. He will not travel alone, the rocket will leave for Huelva together with a team of 30 people of the illicit company. The spacecraft is scheduled to take off next month of March.
It’s about a microlauncher of 12.5 meters in length and 2,500 kilos of takeoff weight, which will serve to put small satellites into orbit. In reality, the Miura 1 is what is called a technology demonstrator, with which the firm from Elche wants to test up to 70% of the technology that it will subsequently apply to the Miura5, the rocket with which it will really begin to carry out commercial missions. of cargo and whose start-up is expected for 2024.
For this reason, the Miura 1 is a suborbital rocket and is designed to lift payloads of 100 kilos to 150 kilometers highwith a 12 minute flight in which they are obtained three minutes of microgravity to perform experiments. The pitcher’s return will occur with a parachute in the Atlantic, about 70 kilometers from the point of its launch, where it will be picked up by a barco.
The startup, born within the UMH Science Park, founded in 2011 by the people of Elche Raúl Torres and Raúl Verdúhas grown by leaps and bounds and has so far secured financing of 45 million euros.
The PLD Space Manifesto plans to start in 2024 with two annual flight missions of the Miura 5 from French Guianawhich will gradually increase until reaching between 10 and 12 launches a year.
strategic project
This aerospace vehicle has had public support, through grants INPYME for amount of 184.000 eurosand through the Valencian Institute of Finance (IVF) has got 2.3 million.
PLD Space has a team of 120 personas and has been declared Strategic Territorial Project (PTE) by the Generalitat.
The regional secretary for Sustainable Economy, Empar Martinezattended this Wednesday the institutional signature of the rocket and pointed out that this project “places the technological capacities of the Valencian Community on the international map and its declaration as PTE implies the expediting the necessary procedures to scale the growth of this company as a strategic industry that is and contributes to the industrial sovereignty».
The technology, design and industry of the Community take a giant step forward, highlights the Generalitat. Martinez could you put your signature on one of the wings of the rocket that will be launched into space.
Last week, for the first time this year, the Board of the Aerospace Industry of the Valencian Community, which is already working on the sector strategy for the next 2023-2026. The meeting was led by the regional secretary for Sustainable Economy, Empar Martínez, and the general director of Industry, Energy and Mines, Silvia Cerdá, as well as the general director of AEROCAS, Blanca Marín.
The Community brings together 70 of the 1,000 aerospace and aeronautical companies in Spain. Those 70 companies they invoice 591 million euros per year and they are the vanguard of a strategic sector for the Valencian Community. The sector is represented in the ESPAI AERO association and works in coordination with the universities and the Valencian public administration. The UMH of Elche and the Elche City Council have also provided support to these initiatives.
The company from Elche also has facilities in the Teruel airport. Precisely, yesterday it was known that PLD Space has designed a project for microsatélites for said aerodrome that will generate up to 300 jobs, pending the aerospace PERTE for its start-up.