ESA will pay an Italian company nearly $50 million to design a mini-Starship
The European space agency signed a contract on Monday with Avio, the Italian company behind the small VEGA rocket, to start designing a reusable superior scene capable of flying in orbit, returning to earth and getting started again.
It is a more difficult feat than recovering and reusing the scene of booster of a rocket, which the European industry has not yet accomplished. The Falcon 9 rocket of SpaceX workhorse has a recoverable booster, and several companies in the United States, China and Europe are trying to reproduce the success of SpaceX with the Falcon 9 partially reusable.
While other rocket companies are trying to make up for the Falcon 9, SpaceX has turned its dollars of research and development towards Starship, a huge rocket that can be fully reusable by more than 400 feet (120 meters) in height. Even SpaceX, reinforced by the deep pockets of one of the richest people in the world, has struggled to perfect all the technologies necessary to operate the ship.
But SpaceX makes progress with starship, so it is not surprising that other rocket manufacturers want to copy it. The European Space Agency’s contract with Avio is the latest example.
Preliminary design
ESA and Avio signed the agreement, worth 40 million euros ($ 47 million), on the sidelines of the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney. In a press release, Avio said that it “would define the requirements, the design of the system and the technologies to develop a demonstrator capable of returning safely on Earth and of being reused in future missions”.
At the end of the two -year contract, Avio will offer a preliminary design for the reusable higher stage and the land infrastructure necessary to make it a reality. The preliminary design review is an important step in the first phases of an aerospace project, which is generally occurring many years before the end. For example, the flagship rocket of Europe Ariane 6 succeeded in its preliminary design examination in 2016, eight years before its first launch.
An artist’s concept published by Avio and ESA shows what the reusable upper scene might look like. The vehicle has a strange resemblance to the SpaceX vessel, with four components affixed on the top and bottom. The reusable upper stadium is mounted at the top of a reminder scene similar to the VEGA rocket with Avio solid combustion. Avio and ESA have not published any specification on the size or performance of the launcher.
