European Space Agency

On 17 June, the agency announced the launch of its ASTRE (Advanced Staged-Combustion Technologies for Reusable Engines) project, revealing that industry stalwart ArianeGroup would lead a consortium that includes SiriusSpace and Pangea Aerospace. The project aims to develop a full-flow staged combustion methalox reusable rocket engine capable of producing between 200 and 300 tonnes of thrust, placing it in roughly the same class as the SpaceX Raptor engine. According to the agency, the goal of the project is “to equip the French and European space industry with new capabilities for strategic applications.”

As project lead, ArianeGroup will be responsible for technology maturation and the development of two demonstrator engines, one at reduced scale and another fully representative of the final engine. SiriusSpace will support the maturation of key technologies, while Pangea Aerospace will focus on the preliminary design of the target engine.

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At a June 12 press briefing after a meeting of the ESA Council, agency officials said they had a “deep discussion” about the fiscal year 2026 budget proposal for NASA released May 30 that would, if enacted, affect science and exploration programs involving the two agencies, from Artemis to Earth science.

“We are impacted on quite of number of domains that, at least for the moment, are proposed for cancellations or reductions,” Josef Aschbacher, ESA director general, said. “We are doing our homework in analyzing what is the impact and what could be options and measures we could take in order to make sure that investments that have been made by our member states are utilized in the best possible way.”

The impacts of the NASA budget cut across ESA, illustrating the significant cooperation between the two agencies. The biggest is in exploration, with the budget proposing an end to the Orion spacecraft, to which ESA provides the service module, after Artemis 3, as well as canceling the lunar Gateway, Mars Sample Return (MSR) and NASA support for ESA’s Rosalind Franklin rover mission.

Work on those efforts is continuing currently, said Daniel Neuenschwander, director of human and robotic exploration at ESA. “Of course, we anticipate options,” he said, such as studying with industry potential, unspecified alternative uses for the Orion service module and the Earth Return Orbiter for MSR.

He said that ESA and its industrial partners are continuing work on the service module, or ESM, for Artemis 4, set for delivery this year. “We are studying with the industry consortium delivering the European service modules some alternative missions for ESM,” he said. “We will continue to deliver the ESM as long as they are needed.”

Aschbacher said that ESA has maintained “close interactions” with NASA on the budget proposal, including briefings from NASA officials. “We have a very open and transparent working relationship,” he said.

ESA used the briefing to emphasize that it has a wide range of other international partnerships that could be expanded even if partnerships with NASA shrink.

He said that includes looking for “reinforced partnerships” with countries to compensate for any reductions of cooperation with NASA. One example he gave was an agreement with the Indian space agency ISRO signed in May to cooperate on human spaceflight. That could lead, he said, to ESA astronauts visiting ISRO’s space station planned for the 2030s as one option for European astronauts after the retirement of the International Space Station.

Lange Nacht der #Wissenschaften am TROPOS am 20.6.25 ab 18 Uhr - u.a. mit: Wenn #Wasser tanzt: Die faszinierende Welt von #Tropfen & #Eis in #Wolken; Der geheimnisvolle grüne #Strahl am Leipziger Nachthimmel. ACD-C – das doppelte Solarium für Teilchen; Start eines #Wetterballons; #Lasershow in den Wolken; #EngageMINT & Mit Leipziger Wissen das #Wetter aus dem #All beobachten > https://www.tropos.de/aktuelles/veranstaltungen/lange-nacht-der-wissenschaften-2025 / #LndWLeipzig #LeipzigweißBescheid #wisseninleipzig #lidar #ACTRISD @leibnizwgl @esa

Esto es una preciosidad, y otro avance de la ciencia. En la misión #SolarOrbiter 🚀de la @esa se ha fotografiado por primera vez los polos solares. Mucho talento andaluz en ella https://www.agenciasinc.es/Noticias/Tecnologia-espanola-en-la-mision-Solar-Orbiter Imágenes en las diferentes longitudes de ondas ☀️https://youtu.be/Ed8e6yF68wQ

The ispace EUROPE-led consortium was awarded an initial pre-Phase A contract for the Mission for Advanced Geophysics and Polar Ice Exploration (MAGPIE) in December 2024. MAGPIE is being developed under ESA’s Small Missions for Exploration programme, which was introduced to support low-cost, rapid-development space missions that advance Europe’s exploration objectives.

The primary objectives of the MAGPIE mission are to explore and characterise volatile deposits in the lunar polar regions and to search for water ice that could support a sustained human presence on the Moon. While few details about the rover itself have been released, a paper presented at the 23rd IAA Symposium described MAGPIE as “a midsized rover.”

On 3 June, ESA awarded ispace an extension of its pre-Phase A contract, bringing the total contract value to €2.695 million. According to an ispace press release issued the same day, the extension will support collaboration on the implementation phase of the MAGPIE mission to the Moon. This includes the development of the mission concept, maturation of payload technologies, interface design, and prototype manufacturing in preparation for a future lunar exploration mission. However, no projected timeline has been provided for when the mission might launch.

ArianeGroup has successfully completed a series of hot-fire tests of a 3D-printed, flight-configured 240N hydrogen peroxide thruster.

In a 22 May update on LinkedIn, ArianeGroup senior orbital propulsion engineer Ulrich Gotzig announced the successful completion of the test campaign, which took place on the M11 test bench at the DLR facilities in Lampoldshausen. While Gotzig offered very little detail about the thruster and its purpose, his post did include that its development had been funded, in part, through the European Commission’s SALTO project.

The reuSable strAtegic space Launcher Technologies & Operations (SALTO) project is a European Union-funded initiative launched in December 2022. Led by ArianeGroup, SALTO aims to advance key technologies for reusable launch vehicles, with a particular emphasis on validating vertical landing capabilities. The project is closely tied to the European Space Agency’s Themis programme, which serves as a primary testbed for demonstrating these technologies. Themis is expected to perform its first hop test later this year.

French spaceplane startup AndroMach announced on 15 May that it had received a CNES contract to begin testing an early prototype of its Banger v1 rocket engine.

Founded in 2023, AndroMach is developing a pair of spaceplanes that will be used to perform suborbital and orbital missions to space. The suborbital ENVOL spaceplane will utilize turbojet engines for takeoff and landing, and a pressure-fed LOX/biopropane rocket engine to reach space. Test flights of this smaller vehicle will begin in early 2027. The larger ÉTOILE “orbital shuttle” is designed to be launched by a variety of small launch vehicles and will be capable of carrying payloads of up to 100 kilograms. According to the company, initial test flights of ÉTOILE are expected to begin at the beginning of the next decade.

Work on the project’s first phase began in the second half of 2024 and focused on identifying the technology maturation needs for a reusable upper stage demonstrator. This phase also included an assessment of potential commercial applications for the technology.

On 15 May, ESA published a call for proposals for Phase 2 of the project, which will focus on activities “up to a critical design milestone.” This stage in a project’s development typically signifies that the detailed design is complete and the system is ready to proceed to manufacturing or full-scale implementation. While the call did not provide much additional detail, it does note that Phase 2 will involve early long-lead technology maturation and demonstration activities.