Created in 2021, the very young start-up The Exploration Company has just raised 160 M$ to develop its reusable space cargo project by 2027. A Franco-German nugget already spotted by NASA.

Elon Musk did it with his Space X rocket, why shouldn't Europeans be able to create a reusable spaceship too? A challenge that the Franco-German start-up The Exploration Company (TEC) is taking up at the speed of light., which has just successfully raised $160 million in funds to create a reusable space capsule dedicated to freight between Earth and stations in Earth and even lunar orbit. A colossal market in the making. It is not for nothing that, for the first time, two European sovereign funds (BPI-France and the German DTCF) have invested together in this project.

Fastest growing in the world

The 1er The flight is scheduled for 2027, which is tomorrow. But already, in less than three years, TEC has already designed and produced two demonstrators. Unparalleled speed of innovation for this start-up created in 2021 with a team of expert aeronautical engineers by Hélène Huby, a convinced European, graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and ENA graduate who worked for Airbus and Ariane Espace.

“We are building one of the fastest growing space companies in the world”, we can read on the website of The Exploration Company, which already has 200 employees, mostly engineers.

Unparalleled features

Named Nyx (goddess of the cosmos in ancient Greece), the reusable cargo project is already exciting the New Space world with its characteristics and potential in an extremely promising market that anticipates a turnover of 5 to 50 billion dollars within 10 years with no less than 2,700 satellites launched each year by then, according to Euro Consult.

Nyx will thus be able to :

  • Take off from any heavy launcher and dock at any station in Earth or lunar orbit.
  • Carry up to 4 tons of materials and bring back to land up to 3 tons of material, the largest volume in the world today.
  • Be refueled in flight orbital to continue its mission
  • Use a non-toxic fuel, a mixture of cryogenic liquid methane and liquid oxygen, producing a thrust of 200 tons.
  • Making missions accessible to as many people as possible, space and non-space companies, with “ a cost 25 to 50% lower than other vehicles ", specifies the start-up.

3 years and already €800 million in orders

While its experimental vessel is not yet in production, the start-up, based in Mérignac and Munich, with offices in Italy and Huston (United States), is racking up orders. Among its first nice commercial feats, TEC has signed a public contract with the European Space Agency and five private contracts, including one $100 million contract with Axiom Space, a young company founded by a former NASA employee and which has raised 500 million dollars.

Mission for TEC: ensure freight to its 1era space station to take shape in 2026.

Finally, TEC is the first European company to have signed the Space Act with NASA, the key to working with the American agency. When you know the importance of being the first to occupy the field… Next step, crucial for the future of TEC, the scheduled launch, in 2025 of a first mini cargo ship with a capacity of 300 kg.

Even though much remains to be done, TEC and its president, Hélène Huby, have demonstrated a formidable ability to develop their entire business, both technically and commercially, while still respecting their very ambitious planned schedule.

It seems that The Exploration Company has already taken off.