PLD Space fast-tracks MIURA 5 and sharpens Europe leadership in space access
by Hugo Ritmico
Madrid, Spain (SPX) Oct 15, 2025
PLD Space says it has advanced its reusable MIURA 5 orbital launcher from concept to near-validation in just two years, crediting vertical integration, MIURA 1 heritage, and in-house manufacturing. The company targets completing 2025 with its first fully integrated MIURA 5 ready for final qualification.
MIURA 5 is progressing through subsystem qualification across engines, structures, avionics, GNC, separation, and fairing after closing the launch system Critical Design Review. PLD Space also cleared the first phase of Flight Safety Validation with CNES for operations from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou.
Production has moved to semi-serial builds. The team has manufactured eight complete tanks spanning both stages. In propulsion, first full units of the 190 kN TEPREL-C main engine and the TEPREL-Vac upper-stage engine are complete, with capacity planned to reach one engine every 14 days by late 2025.
“Reliability is built by testing. Every component, engine, and system undergoes an exhaustive validation process before flying. That’s how you move fast – but safely,” said Raul Torres, CEO and Co-founder of PLD Space.
Hot-fire campaigns include fully integrated TEPREL-CVac testing, alongside validation of turbopumps and gas generators. Beyond engines, MIURA 5 tanks have undergone pressure, compression, and cryogenic trials, while fairing deployment and stage separation mechanisms have been exercised as part of the vehicle qualification program.
On the ground segment, civil works for the MIURA 5 Launch Complex are advancing at CSG Kourou, making PLD Space the first private company constructing a pad in the ELM-Diamant area. In parallel, the firm is fabricating the launch pad in Spain and the maritime transport containers bound for French Guiana.
“The results from the TEPREL-CVac hot-fire tests we have conducted so far demonstrate the strength of the engine development know-how we have built internally over more than a decade,” said Raul Torres.
PLD Space expects its first fully integrated MIURA 5 before year-end, with demonstration flights beginning in 2026. Commercialization has already opened, and several launch slots are reserved as the company positions MIURA 5 as a primary European small satellite launcher.
Backed by more than 170 million euros and a network of 397 key partners, PLD Space reports supplier investment above 50 million euros from 2024 to the first half of 2025. The workforce grew 40 percent in 2025 to exceed 400 employees, with headcount expected to reach 420 by year-end.
“This is the team that made it possible to develop an orbital rocket in half the time of our international competitors,” said Ezequiel Sanchez, Executive President of PLD Space. “We are proving that we have what it takes to lead the next generation of space transportation – and that the future of innovation will be built in space.”
The company operates more than 180,000 m2 of infrastructure, including Europe’s largest private rocket test center in Teruel, recently expanded with four new benches, and the upcoming Kourou launch complex. Industrialization is planned for Q1 2026, scaling toward 30 launches annually by 2030.
PLD Space describes a broader roadmap anchored by the MIURA launcher family and the LINCE crewed capsule, with facilities spanning Elche and Teruel in Spain, Kourou in French Guiana, and Duqm in Oman, aimed at delivering reusable, sustainable access for satellites and, eventually, humans.
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