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 put satellites into 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 financed mainly by Spain with a German contribution, positions the company as one of the central components of the future European launcher ecosystem.
The agreement is split into two components. The first aims to consolidate the commercial service of MIURA 5 and progressively increase its launch rate through to 2030, at a time when the company says it already sees 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 incorporate 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 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-financing: “What we do now is no longer set detailed 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.”
Lucía Linares, ESA, 27 August 2026 – ‘Euronews’
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 so for me it is truly a great thrill, not only to attend the launch they will carry out. I have been following it for many years, but also to be able to see here in French Guiana how the construction of PLD Space’s infrastructure is progressing, as it will launch from French Guiana, the European Spaceport.”
The prelude to MIURA Next
According to the company, a large part of the subsystems developed in this orbital upgrade programme will not remain with MIURA 5: they are designed to be transferred directly to MIURA Next, the future family of heavy launchers with which PLD Space wants to scale up. The idea is that each technical improvement certified now will shorten timelines and reduce risks when the turn comes for the larger launcher.
“ESA’s selection of PLD Space confirms the maturity of the roadmap we have been building for years,” summed up Ezequiel Sánchez, executive chairman of the company, who sees the contract as part of a trajectory that began with MIURA 1 and which, he says, should end with the transfer of critical technology to the heavy launcher.
PLD Space’s is not the only contract ESA has closed in this round. Germany’s Rocket Factory Augsburg has received 186.9 million euros for its RFA One, which will operate from Scotland’s SaxaVord base, 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 having by 2030 a European successor to Ariane 6 that does not depend on a single operator, and at the ministerial meeting in Bremen in November 2025 member states doubled down on their funding commitment to 900 million euros.
For PLD Space, the contract adds to the 42 million euros it had already received from CDTI through the Aerospace PERTE and comes at the final stage of development of MIURA 5, the orbital rocket that is set to succeed MIURA 1.
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