A decade after the end of ATV cargo ships, the European Space Agency wishes to react to the dynamism of manned activities in low orbit. The first brick? A reusable cargo capsule. After 5 months of studying the files, The Exploration Company and Thales Alenia Space were selected.
The European Columbus laboratory module, the gigantic ATV cargo ships, the experiments, the astronauts and their training course: ESA has been involved in progress in human spaceflight for more than 3 decades. Despite everything, since part of the “payments in kind” concerning the ISS have been transferred to the service module of the American Orion capsule, space Europe has given the impression of a certain disengagement on the subject, at the moment even where the private sector is most interested, with the sending of “tourists” on short missions, the promise of commercial space stations or quite simply the planned end of the ISS.
Several nations, France in the lead, have been calling for several years to accelerate the theme of manned flight. But ESA budgets are not compatible with it at the moment. The agency, however, found a useful solution, that of working on a new generation of cargo capsules, reusable and adaptable, which could ultimately evolve into manned vehicles. It is in this context that it selected The Exploration Company and Thales Alenia Space.
Ready, Set ? Design!
This contract is another small turning point, it marks the ESA’s desire to test the American model of service contracts. For this, manufacturers compete and are selected to provide their technological solution (here, cargo capsules) of which they remain owners, but for which the agency is a privileged client.
The Exploration Company and Thales Alenia Space thus won this “phase 1”, for which 7 applications were submitted last November. They are each deferring 25 million euros to develop, until 2026, all the design details of their respective vehicles. On this date, ESA will make a new phase 2 selection for the production and delivery of cargo ships to and from the ISS, with the objective of a first flight for 2028.
We know that the ISS should retire around 2030, but again, there is no question of developing the capsules for nothing, they will be compatible with the universal docking systems planned for future commercial stations like those developed by Axiom Space , Vast or Starlab.
Ambition is allowed
The choice of ESA can be described as a mix between a historic and benchmark industrialist (Thales Alenia Space, TAS) and a European NewSpace start-up (The Exploration Company). The TAS capsule, which does not have a definitive name at the moment and keeps the acronym LCRS, for “LEO Cargo Return Service”, measures 4.5 meters in diameter. It is built on a model that brings it closer to Apollo and Starliner.
The Nyx capsule from The Exploration Company, for its part, appears visually more conical. We will be able to see what it looks like thanks to different experiments that the company plans to carry out in the months and years to come with demonstrators (the first will be under the hood of the inaugural Ariane 6). The young company, based in Bordeaux and near Munich, makes no secret of it: Nyx is a first step towards a manned vehicle. In addition, its cargo ship, before being selected by the ESA, already has an agreement with Axiom Space to supply its future independent station.
Finally, let us point out that the 5 losing companies, including the Germans Rocket Factory Augsburg and their cargo ship Argo, or ArianeGroup with its Susie concept, are not definitively on the bench. Indeed, the decision to carry out the complete design study on their side is theirs, as long as they invest the funds on their side. Some could take the opportunity to return to the competition when the ESA makes its choice concerning phase 2 of this ambitious European project, which could lead to a major result for the next decade.
Source : ESA
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