Durante l’ultima Ministeriale ESA sono stati stanziati 900 milioni di Euro per supportare la European Launcher Challenge. I dettagli in un articolo di European Spaceflight.
On 2 December, ESA released its “Document 100” breakdown, a detailed register of every subscription made by participating Member States to its optional programmes. The document revealed that the final amount raised for the European Launcher Challenge was €902.16 million. While the funding model’s structure suggests that only the UK, Spain, France, and Germany would have contributed, there are a few additional countries that have also committed funds to the programme.
Il programma prevede la dimostrazione della capacità di lancio entro il 2027.
The next stage of the programme will see ESA signing framework agreements with each participating company in 2026. Each company will then be required to successfully demonstrate its launch system by no later than 2027. If successful, ESA will commit to procuring launch services, with missions to be flown by 2030 at the latest.
As a separate element of the programme, each company may also be required to demonstrate, no later than 2028, a proposed capacity upgrade that has not previously been flown in order to unlock additional funding.