Spanish space firm receives €2 million from European Commission

SPANISH rocket start-up PLD Space has received a €2 million grant from the European Commission to develop a pair of launchers designed for small satellites.

This brings the total raised for the company to €9 million to build their Arion 1 and Arion 2 rockets in the hope to make both rockets reusable.

PLD Space anticipates a first launch of Arion 1 in 2019, followed by the Arion 2 rocket in 2021 but both missions have been delayed by a year.

Arion 1 is designed to carry 100- to 200-kilogram payloads to suborbital altitudes while Arion 2 is being designed to haul some 150 kilograms to low Earth orbit.

It is not known at this stage what the rockets will carry into their respective altitudes.