Space startup The Exploration Company raises $450 million

A five-year-old company wants to build a giant rocket with a payload of up to 60 tons. Venture investors like the plan.

Munich. A space company that was only founded in 2021 has raised $450 million (a good 387 million euros) from daring investors to develop a giant rocket and an astronaut capsule. The German-French start-up The Exploration Company (TEC) wants to have developed the launch vehicle with a payload of up to 60 tons by 2033, as company boss Hélène Huby said.

For comparison: the current leader Ariane 6 can carry just over 20 tons. Huby himself called the target date “aggressive” and did not rule out delays. According to the company, TEC has secured a total of $680 million in financing so far.

The reusable space capsule dubbed “Nyx” is expected to be completed much sooner. According to the current plan, the capsule - still without astronauts on board - is scheduled to dock with the International Space Station ISS for the first time on November 28th, as Huby said.

The French manager is also the French President's special envoy for the Paris Space Summit this Wednesday and Thursday. The conference was also the occasion for the TEC announcement. The parent company is based in Gauting near Munich, a wholly owned subsidiary in France.

Rocket development is currently a booming industry in Europe. The only European launch vehicle ready for series production is the Ariane 6. But this is only produced in small numbers. But the need is great: both private companies and governments are lining up to have many thousands of civil and military satellites put into orbit over the next few years.

The US company SpaceX wins most of the orders due to a lack of European capacity. On Saturday evening, the German start-up Isar Aerospace successfully launched five satellites during the second test flight of its Spectrum rocket. However, the Spectrum is a much smaller rocket than the Ariane 6 with a comparatively small payload.