Maia launcher

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Flyaway

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arstechnica.com

Concerned about SpaceX, France to accelerate reusable rocket plans

"It's a real break from French strategy, and clearly inspired by the USA."
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com

Concerned about SpaceX, France to accelerate reusable rocket plans

"It's a real break from French strategy, and clearly inspired by the USA."

The new plan calls for the large, France-based rocket firm ArianeGroup to develop a new small-lift rocket called Maïa by the year 2026. This is four years ahead of a timeline previously set by the European Space Agency for the development of a significantly larger, reusable rocket.

Although the technical details are sparse, Maïa will not be Europe's "Falcon 9." It will have a lift capacity of up to 1 metric ton to low Earth orbit and be powered by a reusable Prometheus rocket engine, which is fueled by methane and liquid oxygen. This engine, which remains in the preliminary stages of development, has a thrust comparable to a single Merlin 1D rocket engine, which powers SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. But since there are nine engines on the SpaceX rocket, it can lift more than 15 times as much as the proposed Maïa in fully reusable mode.
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The way I read this from what others have said this appears to be about crushing other small scale launchers in Europe rather than actually competing with Space X.
 
It will also dubiously stand in front of any future litigations... From public grandiloquent statements and funding to unlimited access into public R&D, this truly looks like a sheep in wolf clothing that wouldn't even beg to be tolerated on the market.
 
France’s CNES: There’s a mini-launcher competition in Europe. We intend to win it

The French government will subsidize development of ArianeGroup’s Maia reusable mini-launcher, and other French mini-launchers as well, to meet a competitive threat from other European small launchers, the president of the French space agency, CNES, said.

The decision was made after France concluded that mini-launchers are not just proving grounds for technologies intended for larger vehicles, but commercially valuable assets in the emerging satellite market.
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In its recoverable mode the launcher loses two thirds of its payload capacity compared to when it’s just used in an expendable mode.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1571031216949788674
View: https://twitter.com/andrewparsonson/status/1571031216949788674


Small update from MaiaSpace: Maia will be capable of carrying 1,500 kg payloads to orbit in an expendable configuration. This is reduced by two-thirds to just 500 kg when it's being recovered. This shows the huge payload tax that's required for recovering these small vehicles.
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Some good news for Maia:

ArianeGroup has committed to increasing its investment in the company’s launch startup subsidiary, MaiaSpace, from approximately €40 million to €125 million.

MaiaSpace was founded in late 2021 with the aim of developing a partially reusable microlauncher. The standard two-stage configuration of the Maia vehicle will be capable of deploying 1,500 kilograms into low Earth orbit when the first stage is expended and 500 kilograms when it is being recovered. However, with the addition of the Colibri kick stage, the vehicle’s performance will increase to 2,500 kilograms to low Earth orbit when the first stage is expended.

Since its founding, ArianeGroup has invested approximately €40 million into the fledgling launch company. This has allowed MaiaSpace to grow to over 115 employees, construct a prototype of the Maia second stage, which has undergone cryo testing, and test-fired the engine that will power the Colibri kick stage all in just two years of operation.

As MaiaSpace pushes forward to its ambitious goal of a maiden launch attempt in 2025, ArianeGroup has committed an additional €85 million to the cause. This makes the company one of the most well-funded launch startups in Europe, surpassing Orbex’s €115 million and only falling short of the impressive €310 million raised by Isar Aerospace. However, the €125 million invested in MaiaSpace doesn’t tell the whole story.

To boost the pace at which it develops Maia, MaiaSpace is utilizing the work done by ArianeGroup for its ESA-contracted Themis and Prometheus programmes. Maia will utilize three Prometheus engines for its first stage and a single vacuum-optimized Prometheus engine for its second stage. As for Themis, considering recent reporting confirming that Maia will stand at 50 metres tall, it’s likely that the very little of the 30-metre tall Themis booster will be left behind.

To date, over €300 million in combined funding has been spent on Themis and Prometheus. This, when added to the €125 million supplied by ArianeGroup, is a more accurate but not perfect overview of the funding that has gone and that will still go towards the development of Maia.
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europeanspaceflight.com

ArianeGroup to Increase MaiaSpace Investment to €125M - European Spaceflight

ArianeGroup’s investment in MaiaSpace will increase from approximately €40M to €125M as the company pursues a 2025 maiden launch.
europeanspaceflight.com europeanspaceflight.com
 
Amazing how the money and IP flow freely to a private ownership without any safeguard or rational guarantee of any proven success.

If the methalox doesn't lift that rockets, would the pile of public money do? (yes, yes, a green startup per se).
 

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