Strong winds delay Costa Blanca company’s first private rocket launch in Spain

ELCHE’S PLD Space has called off Wednesday’s test launch of its first suborbital usable rocket due to strong high altitude winds.

It was going to be the first private rocket launch in Western Europe but the company says it planned to try again from the Huelva aerospace research centre in the next few days.

PLD Space’s test is set to be its first step in the race to put small satellites into space and capture a slice of a potential trillion-dollar market.

Europe’s efforts to develop capabilities to send small satellites into space are in focus after a failed orbital rocket launch by Virgin Orbit from the UK in January.

PLD Space’s ‘Miura 1’ rocket, named after a breed of fighting bulls, is as tall as a three-storey building and has a 100 kilo cargo capacity.

It can also be used to carry out zero-gravity experiments.

The test will gather as much data as possible to build ‘Miura 5’, an orbital rocket which is being developed and would be launched from a space centre in French Guiana.

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• Costa Blanca company counts down to first private rocket launch in Europe from Spain’s Huelva