Miura-1: Spanish company launches reusable rocket in a breakthrough for European space goals

The Spanish private agency Payload Aerospace S.L. (PLD Space) has launched its reusable Miura-1 rocket early on Saturday (7 October) morning in South-west Spain.

The rocket made history as Europe's first fully private rocket launch after two previous attempts to launch the rocket failed.  

The Miura-1 rocket, named after a breed of fighting bull, is as tall as a three-storey building and has a 100kg (220-pound) cargo capacity. The launch carried a payload for test purposes but this would not be released, the company said.

“My voice is shot after so much shouting,” said a triumphant Raul Torres, chief executive of PLD Space, shortly after the launch, as a mission control video showed engineers cheering and congratulating one another. 

A first attempt to launch the Miura-1 rocket in May was abandoned because of high-altitude winds. A second attempt in June failed when umbilical cables in the avionics bay did not all release in time, halting the lift-off as smoke and flames spewed from the rocket.

Europe has high hopes of sending satellites into space, and are still in focus after a failed orbital rocket launch by Virgin Orbit from Britain in January.

However, competitors are lining up to join the race to launch small payloads which companies in Scotland, Sweden and Germany are trying to do.

The Miura-1 demonstrator was the first of two scheduled suborbital missions, but analysts say the most critical test would be the development of orbital services on the larger Miura-5, planned for launch in 2025.

The Miura5 is a two-stage European orbital recoverable launch vehicle, meaning it has parts that can be recovered and reflown. Its first test flight is planned in 2024.

PLD Space was founded in 2011 by Raúl Torres, Raúl Verdú and José E. Martínez in Elche, Spain, and it employs 70 people. It is funded by a series of investment rounds with institutional and private sources and up to now gathered investments worth around $10 million.

As of 2023, the company only have two vehicles, the Miura- 1 and the Miura-5.