ESA and Avio sign contract for a reuseable upper stage demonstration mission

[Flyaway]

The European Space Agency and Avio signed a contract for 24-months of development activities aiming at the in-flight demonstration of a reusable upper stage. The activities, for a total value of €40 million, will assess and prepare the requirements, the design and the technologies for both the ground and flight segments required for an upper stage demonstrator that in the future could return to Earth and be reused on another flight.

The contract was signed by the European Space Agency’s Director of Space Transportation Toni Tolker-Nielsen and Avio’s Chief Commercial Officer and Launch Services Director Marino Fragnito, at the International Aeronautical Congress in Sydney, Australia.

Space transportation is moving towards frequent reusable launchers supporting an industrial ecosystem around Earth. In the coming decades, the European Space Agency (ESA) foresees transportation hubs in orbit around our planet providing logistic services much like airports or train stations on Earth. Frequent flights to space would benefit from completely reusable rockets, and today’s signature kicks off industrial activity to assess the technologies needed and design concepts for an upper stage demonstration mission.

Building on past and currently ongoing industrial work, the activities will address a demonstrator mission system requirements and technological solutions, ending with a preliminary design for both the flight and ground segments. The contract tackles the technological challenges and focusses on disruptive solutions. The activities will support European industry, reducing development risks as they move towards full rocket reusability into future evolutions of European launch systems, allowing for more flexibility, cost-efficiency and competitiveness.

ESA’s Director of Space Transportation Toni Tolker-Nielsen explained, “I am glad to sign this contract since its importance is two-fold: on one side it addresses technological criticalities in the short-term, on the other side it paves the way for the preparation of Europe’s long-term future in space.”

An upper stage is the last part of a rocket that delivers a payload. Also called an orbital stage these elements have so far never been reused. Europe has demonstrated the capability of all aspects of launching hardware to space and returning it safely to Earth, but putting it all together into a complete reusable upper stage that also launches payloads has the possibility to be a gamechanger.

“The objective and content of the activities are the result of a joint harmonisation work made together with Avio to maximise the technology return on ESA and national investments,” said ESA’s Chief Technical Advisor for Space Transportation Giorgio Tumino, “we are capitalising on progress made in advanced liquid propulsion, reentry, recoverability and reusability technologies, complementing ongoing efforts to de-risk demonstrations of reusable lower stages, supporting different possible scenarios, including evolutions of the Vega family of rockets as well as other newly-defined fully-reusable launch systems in Europe.”

Chief Executive Officer at Avio, Giulio Ranzo, said, “We are excited to work on the reusable upper stage, leveraging on our parallel experiences in liquid oxygen-methane engines and stages as well as on the Space Rider reentry vehicle. We aim to create an advanced, light-weight, performance-efficient solution for our next-generation launchers to serve customers with higher flight rates and competitive costs.”


Contact

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[Dilandu]

Interesting... So, a cheap solid booster, launching re-usable second stage?

 

[publiusr]

The solids are likely just a temporary arrangement...still...

--Doing the hard part first?

I guess that makes sense.

Elon has SuperHeavy down pat., after all.

They may think SpaceX can't perfect Starship without Europe's best men to show them how.
A not unreasonable stance.

 

[martinbayer]

Interesting... So, a cheap solid booster, launching re-usable second stage?

Cheap solid??? My first aerospace boss in Europe, who came from ESA to German industry in the late last millenium, likened the Italian solid rocket motor production to the Mafia. I just hope I did not just now put an inadvertent hit on my current residence in Greenland, no Siree...

 

[martinbayer]

They may think SpaceX can't perfect Starship without Europe's best men to show them how. A not unreasonable stance.

I completely and utterly agree with that notion ...

 

[martinbayer]

The solids are likely just a temporary arrangement...

*R* *U* *SURE*??? My dear, sweet sheltered child like pure naive intellect, apparently you really have no *actual* knowledge or insight on how industrial labor division in ESA works, and which countries have monopolies on certain launch vehicle technologies. Italy *OWNS* solids. Since Ariane 40 (a most unfortunate escape from a Mafia point of view), there has been *NO* ESA ELV without *any* solid stages/boosters, and as long as... shall we say certain Italian interest groups are in place, that ain't ever gonna change... and oh by the way, fugett about true ESA RLVs IMHO...

 

[BlueAbyssal]

It's not going to contribute anything to Starship development. Hopefully the Europeans can meet their timeline, or at least come close to it.

 

[martinbayer]

From my German rooted US Resident Alien perspective, Europe will *always* be a Johnny come lately case in terms of spaceflight.

 

[Flyaway]

European Spaceflight: Avio Reveals More Hardware for its FD1 Rocket Demonstrator [Oct 29]

On 28 October, the company published its nine-month 2025 financial report, which included an update on the development of its FD1 demonstrator. In addition to the successful MR10 test firing, the company revealed that it had completed a static load test of the rocket’s cryogenic propellant tank. The test applies mechanical forces to the tank to verify that its structure can withstand the stresses experienced during launch.

While the propellant tank was the only FD1 demonstrator component for which the company revealed specific testing, it also shared images of a functional unit of the demonstrator’s avionics, the rocket interstage, an actuator that will gimbal the MR10 engine, and the demonstrator’s fairing.

The image of the fairing also appeared to show something Avio was not yet ready to reveal. It featured an Avio logo superimposed on that of Dal Zotto, an Italian aerospace component manufacturer. While Dal Zotto has supplied components for both Ariane 6 and Vega-C, the company’s involvement with the FD1 demonstrator has not been publicly confirmed.

 

[Byeman]

The solids are likely just a temporary arrangement...still...

--Doing the hard part first?

I guess that makes sense.

Elon has SuperHeavy down pat., after all.

They may think SpaceX can't perfect Starship without Europe's best men to show them how.
A not unreasonable stance.

They are way behind. They have no experience with reusability. Starting with the hard part first likely means more failures before successes. Would have better to start with the booster and learned the process. If one is going to try to learn reusable on non revenue flights, then start with a booster, since an upper stage is not needed. Starting with an upper stage means you have to pay for an expendable booster each flight.
Spacex has always achieved successfully returning an upperstage. Just have to refine the reusability. Space can start with revenue generating flight with Starship right now.