European Spaceflight

Italian launch services provider Avio has seen an influx of customers who were unable to secure launch opportunities with SpaceX, according to CEO Giulio Ranzo. “I can tell you SpaceX has already gone captive because we have a whole bunch of customers coming to us and saying, oh my God, can you fly us?” Ranzo […] The post Avio CEO Reports Influx of Customers Turned Away by SpaceX appeared first on European Spaceflight.

UK-based satellite maker Open Cosmos announced on 14 September that it had closed a €300 million funding round. The company said it would use the new funding to expand its manufacturing capacity and accelerate the deployment of its Earth observation and communications constellations. The €300 million raise represents the company’s first major publicly announced funding […] The post Open Cosmos Raises €300 Million as Investors Back Europe’s Space Push appeared first on European Spaceflight.

Italian launch services provider Avio has successfully completed its second Vega-C flight of 2026, deploying the European Commission’s third Sentinel-3 Earth observation satellite and ESA’s FLEX mission. The Vega-C rocket lifted off from the Guiana Space Centre at 01:21 UTC on 15 September. Following two burns of the rocket’s AVUM+ upper stage, Sentinel-3C was deployed […] The post Avio Launches Second Successful Vega C Flight of 2026 appeared first on European Spaceflight.

French launch startup Sirius Space Services has successfully test-fired a complete prototype of its STAR-1 rocket engine for the first time. The company announced the milestone on 12 September, stating that it had conducted the first hot-fire tests of the complete STAR-1 engine at Airborne Engineering’s propulsion test facility in southern England. While the company […] The post Sirius Space Fires Complete STAR-1 Rocket Engine for the First Time appeared first on European Spaceflight.

French launch startup HyPrSpace announced on 11 September that it has pushed the inaugural flight of its Baguette One suborbital rocket to 2027. In June 2025, HyPrSpace announced that it would launch the inaugural flight of its Baguette One rocket in 2026 from a French Directorate General of Armaments (DGA) test facility on the French […] The post First HyPrSpace Baguette One Launch Slips to 2027 appeared first on European Spaceflight.