Spanish rocket startup PLD unveils a proposed family of rockets plus crew capsule
The Spanish rocket startup PLD this week unveiled a proposed family of rockets to follow its Miura-5 rocket, set to launch for the first time in 2025.
The three rockets introduced were the Miura Next, Miura Next Heavy, and Miura Next Super Heavy, all based on a system or modular building blocks. Miura Next will be the base of the modular system will be a single-stick two-stage rocket. Miura Next Heavy will feature two boosters and Miura Next Super Heavy will feature four boosters. The boosters will have a shared architecture with the rocket’s core stage. The first stages and boosters will all feature a propulsive recovery capability.
The smallest of the three rockets will be capable of delivering up to 13,580 kilograms to low Earth orbit, while the most powerful will have the capacity to deliver 53,000 kilograms.
This design concept essentially follows the approach that SpaceX used to develop the Falcon Heavy from the Falcon 9, and saves a great deal of money by using what the company has already developed as part of the larger rocket.
The crew capsule, dubbed Lince, is conceived at this company’s version of Dragon, capable of launching either cargo or 4 to 5 astronauts to any one of the proposed commercial space stations under construction. Capsule drop tests will begin in 2025, with the first launch abort tests in 2028 aiming for the first orbital flight by 2030.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The Spanish rocket startup PLD this week unveiled a proposed family of rockets to follow its Miura-5 rocket, set to launch for the first time in 2025.
The three rockets introduced were the Miura Next, Miura Next Heavy, and Miura Next Super Heavy, all based on a system or modular building blocks. Miura Next will be the base of the modular system will be a single-stick two-stage rocket. Miura Next Heavy will feature two boosters and Miura Next Super Heavy will feature four boosters. The boosters will have a shared architecture with the rocket’s core stage. The first stages and boosters will all feature a propulsive recovery capability.
The smallest of the three rockets will be capable of delivering up to 13,580 kilograms to low Earth orbit, while the most powerful will have the capacity to deliver 53,000 kilograms.
This design concept essentially follows the approach that SpaceX used to develop the Falcon Heavy from the Falcon 9, and saves a great deal of money by using what the company has already developed as part of the larger rocket.
The crew capsule, dubbed Lince, is conceived at this company’s version of Dragon, capable of launching either cargo or 4 to 5 astronauts to any one of the proposed commercial space stations under construction. Capsule drop tests will begin in 2025, with the first launch abort tests in 2028 aiming for the first orbital flight by 2030.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I wish them luck, it will be awesome if there is another company, particularly non-Chinese, operating at that level. But building all the integration, transport, and launch support facilities with the capability to support a bare core, a core with two boosters, AND a core with four boosters, is going to be a major undertaking. It can obviously be done, Soyuz and Angara are the examples, but as far as I know, those are the only ones, and the infrastructure for those two vehicles is massive and expensive.
I agree with David’s post. It is a straight up copy of Falcon-9 and Falcon-Heavy. If they can do four boosters for the super-heavy, I wish them the best of British luck!
David’s other point of infrastructure is a good question. Will PLD build everything in Spain and ship it to French Guiana or will they build everything in French Guiana?
So Lince, Lynx in Spanish, looks like one of the early ESA ISS CRV concepts from the 2000s, but the inside looks like a manned Dragon.
David Eastman,
All good points. And the infrastructure question extends beyond even the non-trivial matter of launch site facilities. PLD says it intends to eventually recover and reuse its core and side boosters. Doing this via boostback and return-to-launch-site landings would produce a spectacle that would put even Falcon Heavy in the shade. A Rockettes-like “kick line” of four side boosters coming in for side-by-side landings would be something for which one could charge premium spectator seat prices. Having the center core follow along by itself a minute or two later would be the icing on the visual cake. But if, for performance reasons, it is routinely necessary to do at-sea drone ship recoveries, the needed infrastructure costs expand considerably and one could no longer sell tickets to would-be spectators.
All that said, I wish PLD nothing but the best. “Who dares, wins,” says the motto of the British SAS. That can apply to spacefaring derring-do too.
Jay,
Given that Crew Dragon has shown itself to be the world leader in its class, it is small wonder PLD would follow its lead in terms of interior fitments rather than the almost steampunk-ish look of Soyuz, Shenzhou, Starliner and Orion.