European Spaceflight
European Spaceflight
So what is your opinion on the European companies? Which ones do you think will thrive and why?
It might be a bit early but I've been going over the companies and I cannot form a solid opinion.
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Ignoring big old companies like Airbus, Thales Alenia, SES, etc, there are a handful of smaller companies I'm following a bit.
The Exploration Company is working on a space station cargo capsule that can be upgraded for crew. D-Orbit keeps launching space tugs. ICEYE seems to be doing well with their SAR constellation. Exotrail sells smallsat prop systems and has a tug.
For launch, PLD, RFA, and Isar, (and a lot of smaller ones) are racing to operations.
There are also a handful of companies with locations in the US and Europe, like Loft, Oneweb, and Redwire.
What are your thoughts on the MaiaSpace offshoot of ArianeGroup? Do you think they'll be successful enough to carve out a segment of the launch market?
I hope so! Working on a reusable first stage is a good start, and hopefully they're able to leverage Ariane resources but not need to deal with the bureaucracy. I haven't seen enough hardware from them to feel confident yet, though. They're targeting a late 2026 launch, which means 2027, and it better mean PLD, Isar, and RFA have all launched multiple times by then, which makes their business case tougher until/unless they get reuse working.