The European Space Agency (ESA) has begun signing the first contracts for its European Launcher Challenge (ELC), the programme with which Europe is trying to stop relying on foreign launchers to place satellites in orbit. Among the companies selected is PLD Space, the Elche-based firm that in 2023 launched its MIURA 1 demonstrator rocket on a suborbital flight.
The contract, worth 158.9 million euros and funded mainly by Spain with a German contribution, makes it one of the key pillars of the future European launcher ecosystem. The funding will not be paid out in a single instalment, but will be released gradually as the company reaches the milestones set out in the programme.
The agreement is divided into two components. The first aims to consolidate the commercial service of MIURA 5 and gradually ramp up its launch rate through to 2030, at a time when the company says there is already growing commercial interest in the rocket in international markets.
The second, focused on what PLD Space describes as “enhanced orbital capability”, will fund upgrades to MIURA 5 so that it can carry more payload and reach more distant orbits, as well as incorporating propulsive landing, the first step towards reusing the rocket.
‘Euronews’ spoke to Lucía Linares in French Guiana ahead of the launch of the next Meteosat. Linares is Head of Strategy and Institutional Launches at ESA and confirmed to us that companies such as PLD Space, Rocket Factory, Asbury, Maya Space and Isar Aerospace have been chosen by ESA under the Boost programme to receive co-funding: “What we do is no longer set them technical requirements as we do with Ariane or Vega, but simply observe how they develop their launch service and verify that there is also private financing and that they meet certain technical objectives, of course, but without imposing anything on them.”
Linares also confirmed to ‘Euronews’ that they have already signed with PLD Space: “I have to say that we have already signed that contract with PLD Space, and for me it is a very strong emotion, not only to be here for the launch they will carry out – which I have been following for many years – but also to be able to see here in French Guiana how the construction work on PLD Space’s infrastructure is progressing, which will launch from French Guiana, the European Spaceport.”
The prelude to MIURA Next
According to the company, a large part of the subsystems developed under this orbital upgrade programme will not remain on MIURA 5: they are designed to be transferred directly to MIURA Next, the future family of heavy-lift launchers with which PLD Space wants to move up a scale. The idea is that every technical improvement certified now will shorten timelines and reduce risks when it is time for the larger launcher.
“The selection of PLD Space by ESA confirms the maturity of the roadmap we have been building for years,” summed up Ezequiel Sánchez, executive chairman of the company, who places the contract within a trajectory that began with MIURA 1 and, he says, should end with the transfer of critical technology to the heavy launcher.
PLD Space’s is not the only contract ESA has signed in this round. Germany’s Rocket Factory Augsburg has received 186.9 million euros for its RFA One, which will operate from the Scottish base of SaxaVord, and Isar Aerospace has secured 197.8 million for its Spectrum. The three were part of a group of five finalists, completed by MaiaSpace and Orbex, that ESA shortlisted in July 2025 after receiving twelve proposals from across Europe.
ELC was launched in 2023 with the aim, among others, of expanding Europe’s range of launchers and reducing dependence on a single operator. The programme also requires selected providers to achieve an orbital launch before 2028 as a demonstration of their capabilities, while at the ministerial meeting in Bremen in November 2025 the member states increased their funding commitment to 900 million euros.
For PLD Space, the contract comes on top of the 42 million it has already received from CDTI through the Aerospace PERTE and arrives in the final phase of development of MIURA 5, the orbital rocket that is due to succeed MIURA 1.