To achieve this and move as quickly as possible, Dassault has chosen a German partner. Regardless of the ongoing disputes with Airbus's German military division over leadership of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), Dassault and the Bremen-based satellite manufacturer OHB have decided to join forces.
Dassault CEO Eric Trappier has reached an agreement with OHB CEO Marco Fuchs on the development of this spaceplane, capable of operating in and out of low Earth orbit. This dual-use spaceplane could transport payloads to space stations, retrieve objects from low Earth orbit, deploy payloads, intercept enemy satellites, and more.
To develop this capability for operations in orbit, Dassault and OHB intend to leverage their complementary expertise. Dassault is responsible for studies on the aircraft and its "reusability," meaning its ability to land and take off again to reach low Earth orbit. For the aircraft manufacturer, this involves validating in flight technologies critical for controlling hypersonic flight and atmospheric reentry, which requires significant work on advanced thermal protection technologies and flight control.
Alongside the expertise of the aircraft manufacturer, which had already worked in the 1980s on space shuttle projects, the satellite manufacturer OHB will bring its knowledge of the exoatmospheric environment, and will make use of its experience in tracking the trajectories of satellite objects, in space telecommunications and in space engineering.
Cooperation
For the time being, Dassault is not very forthcoming about "Vortex" but confirms the partnership with the German family-owned company. Currently, Dassault is largely self-financing the studies on "Vortex," but the aircraft manufacturer is participating in a project supported by the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, the CNES (French National Centre for Space Studies), and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Last year, the ESA selected two space cargo projects to develop a commercial freight transport service by 2030 to the International Space Station or its future private competitors. The ESA signed agreements with The Exploration Company and Thales Alenia Space, providing €25 million in funding for each project.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is set to launch a second tender in 2026 for its low Earth orbit cargo service, and Dassault hopes to include its Vortex spacecraft. Unlike the two selected projects, this involves an aircraft, not a capsule like The Exploration Company's Nyx capsule, which aims for a return to Earth's atmosphere.
France, thanks to a revision of its military spending law, and Germany are expected to join forces to finance the next phase of the ESA's "LEO Cargo Return Service" project. According to one expert, adding Dassault to the two ongoing projects should not pose much of a problem initially, as the amounts to be spent between now and 2027 do not exceed several tens of millions of euros. The key challenge for all projects will be scaling up, but European states will not be ready for this before 2028.
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