Small launchers continue to make progress despite market difficulties

PARIS — Despite stiff competition from SpaceX’s ride-sharing services and some notable failures, companies continue to pursue small launchers that they believe can fill market niches.

Several companies presented updates on small launch vehicle development at World Space Business Week on September 18, saying they can deliver satellites when and where customers want them rather than waiting for the next available rideshare launch from SpaceX.

“We offer flexibility,” said Miguel Belló Mora, executive chairman of Orbex, a U.K.-based developer of small launchers. “We can’t compete on price per kilo.”

Orbex is currently developing the Prime launch vehicle, which will be launched from Sutherland Spaceport in northern Scotland. A first test launch is planned for summer 2025, with commercial launches beginning in 2026.

Other European companies are continuing to launch new small vehicles. Stanislas Maximin, CEO of French startup Latitude, said the company expects its Zephyr vehicle to be ready for a first test launch by the end of 2025.

Sirius Space Services, another French startup, is developing the Sirius range of vehicles, starting with Sirius 1, which has a capacity of 175 kilos. The company offers two improved versions, Sirius 13 and Sirius 15, which are equipped with two and four additional boosters respectively.

Francois Maroquene-Froissart, managing director of Sirius Space Services, said the company plans a first test flight of Sirius 1 in mid-2026, followed by the first Sirius 13 in 2027. The company separately announced at the conference an agreement with Equatorial Launch Australia (ELA) to conduct these launches from ELA’s Arnhem Space Centre.

Both companies have acknowledged that they need significant demand to break even: from six launches per year for Sirius to 20 per year for Latitude. The only small Western launcher flying at that pace today is Rocket Lab’s Electron, which has completed 10 launches so far this year. Rocket Lab had planned for as many as 22 launches this year, but has scaled back its forecast due to customer delays.

Other companies launch much less frequently, if at all. Startups ABL Space Systems and Rocket Factory Augsburg recently lost vehicles during pad tests. Astra, which once planned to launch dozens or hundreds of its Rocket 3 vehicle each year, pulled the vehicle from the market in 2022 after multiple failures. Virgin Orbit went bankrupt in 2023 after a failed launch from the United Kingdom

Startups at the conference, however, insisted that there is sufficient demand for their vehicles. Demand is coming from “everywhere,” Latitude’s Maximin said, including European governments and international commercial customers.

“Is the European market enough? It probably won’t be enough for Orbex and me, but there is the whole world,” he said. “We have projects, we have made offers and we hope to sign contracts with customers all over the world in the coming months.”

“There are a lot of small launchers in the world” under development, Maroquene-Froissart admitted. He expects many to disappear, but at least a few will survive in Europe.

“I think there could easily be two or three companies in Europe,” Orbex’s Belló Mora said of the smaller vehicle launch companies.

Other vehicle updates

Latitude, Orbex and Sirius are all working to enter a market with many competitors in Europe and elsewhere working on upcoming launches.

At another panel discussion on September 18, Stella Guillen, chief commercial officer of Isar Aerospace, said the company was in the final stages of preparation for the first flight of its Spectrum rocket from the Andøya spaceport in Norway.

“We already have the entire vehicle at the launch site,” she said. The company is preparing to conduct final tests of the second stage, then the first. The final step will be to obtain a launch license from Norwegian regulators. “We are definitely aiming for this year” for the launch, she said.

Raul Verdú, PLD Space’s business development director, said the Spanish company was on track for a first launch of its Miura 5 vehicle next year. The company is spending €10 million to convert the former Diamant launch site in French Guiana for the vehicle. That launch base is expected to be completed by next summer, he said. When asked how likely it was that the rocket would also be ready by then, he simply replied: “Yes.”

Yasushi Tabei of IHI Aerospace, an investor in Japanese launch company Space One, said the company was preparing for a second launch of its Kairos rocket in December. The inaugural launch in March failed when the solid-fuel vehicle exploded seconds after liftoff. The company did not disclose the cause of the failure.

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