European cargo capsule startup raises $160 million in private investment capital
Artist rendition of the proposed Nyx cargo capsule,
taken from The Exploration Company’s website
The French cargo capsule startup The Exploration Company (TEC} announced today that it has raised an additional $160 million in private investment capital, bringing the total raised by the company to $230 million.
Venture capital firms Balderton Capital and Plural were the lead investors in the round which also included French government-backed investment vehicle French Tech Souveraineté and German government-backed fund DeepTech & Climate Fonds.
TEC’s core product is Nyx, a capsule that can be launched from rockets into space carrying passengers and cargo. Nyx is reusable so once it has dropped its payload, it can re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and be used for the next mission.
The company hopes to do its initial test flight of Nyx in 2028. It flew a demonstrator prototype on the first Ariane-6 launch in July 2024, but was unable to test that prototype’s re-entry capabilities (its prime mission) because of a failure in Ariane-6’s upper stage. It hopes to fly a second demonstrator in 2025 on a Falcon 9.
At the moment company officials say they already signed $800 million in cargo contracts, 90% of which are with the commercial space station companies Axiom Space, Vast, and Starlab. The rest are government contracts.
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Artist rendition of the proposed Nyx cargo capsule,
taken from The Exploration Company’s website
The French cargo capsule startup The Exploration Company (TEC} announced today that it has raised an additional $160 million in private investment capital, bringing the total raised by the company to $230 million.
Venture capital firms Balderton Capital and Plural were the lead investors in the round which also included French government-backed investment vehicle French Tech Souveraineté and German government-backed fund DeepTech & Climate Fonds.
TEC’s core product is Nyx, a capsule that can be launched from rockets into space carrying passengers and cargo. Nyx is reusable so once it has dropped its payload, it can re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and be used for the next mission.
The company hopes to do its initial test flight of Nyx in 2028. It flew a demonstrator prototype on the first Ariane-6 launch in July 2024, but was unable to test that prototype’s re-entry capabilities (its prime mission) because of a failure in Ariane-6’s upper stage. It hopes to fly a second demonstrator in 2025 on a Falcon 9.
At the moment company officials say they already signed $800 million in cargo contracts, 90% of which are with the commercial space station companies Axiom Space, Vast, and Starlab. The rest are government contracts.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Impressive. Whatever the fate of the various European launch vehicle initiatives, the largest of them will at least not lack for something European to launch. And, of course, there will always be Falcon 9 – and likely other suitable American launcher offerings – four years hence. The 2028 target date for a first launch dovetails nicely with Vast’s recently announced schedule for initial deployment of the first module for its Haven-2 station. Not a coincidence it seems.
Did they have to make it look like a suppository?
Jeff Wright asked: “Did they have to make it look like a suppository?”
No, but they did have to make it look like a SpaceX Dragon. If it looked like Starliner or Orion, would it bode well for success?