Spanish space startup PLD Space announced, on June 24, 2024, that it is investing €10 million to set up a new launch complex for its MIURA 5 rocket at the Guiana Space Center (CSG) in Kourou, French Guiana.
The facility is going to be located within the European spaceport, which is owned and managed by the French Space Agency (CNES) and the European Space Agency (ESA).
This will make PLD Space the first private space operator to perform orbital launches from Kourou.
PLD Space facility will have 15,765 square meters within the ELM-Diamant site, to be divided between a launch zone and a preparation area with an integration hangar, a clean room, a control center, and offices.
In January 2024, PLD Space, which is one of the flagship companies of Spain’s nascent private space sector, received €40 million from Spanish government through the PERTE program, which implies the return of the capital after the company has managed to successfully generate revenue from its activities.
The Spanish firm aims to kick off the MIURA 5 launch campaign by the end of 2025.
The 30-meter MIURA 5 is the next iteration of PLD Space reusable rocket program. An earlier rocket, the MIURA 1 was launched from Southwestern Spain in October 2023 and, although it was lost in the Atlantic Ocean upon reentry in the atmosphere, it was deemed an overall success, since it allowed for the testing of many of technologies being developed by PLD Space.
