The Exploration Company

Our vehicle design team has successfully completed the first plasma test campaign at the Ariane Group test facility in Saint-Médard-en-Jalles. This test aimed to support the trade-off for selecting the thermal protection material for Nyx Earth. By subjecting different materials to heat flux levels representative of a re-entry from Low Earth Orbit, we were able to observe material behaviour and measure ablation levels.   This achievement marks the initial step in validating our system PDR. We are now moving full speed ahead in developing the thermal protection for our Nyx Earth and Nyx Moon vehicles.

The Exploration Company has been selected for two important projects for the future of space exploration in Europe by the European Space Agency - ESA - Thrust! for the development of a high-thrust staged combustion engine and InSPoC2 (In-Space Proof-of-Concepts) for the preparation of a cryogenic refueling demonstration in-orbit. We look forward to working closely with ESA and our consortium partners in developing these innovative ideas and advancing Europe's capabilities for the future. Special thanks to all our collaborators on each project. For THRUST! -- German Aerospace Center (DLR), Pangea Aerospace, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, AMCM GmbH, deltaVision - fluid control & aerospace, BEBLUE Cryotech SA, MT Aerospace AG, SOGECLAIR and Arceon. For InSpoc2 -- ALAT SAS, Sener Aerospace & Defence, GMV and Space Applications Services NV/SA.

Announcing Project "Space Call" our educational collaboration with Space Elevator and Robinson Aerospace Systems that will fly on our Mission Possible capsule in 2025.   ‘Space Call’ brought students from schools on each continent - namely from Australia, Rwanda, Singapore, Ukraine, Colombia, the UAE, and the United States - to collaborate in building this technical project inspired by the game of Telephone.    This was an important project for us as it brought to life three principles we hold dear at The Exploration Company – the importance of global collaboration in space, the need for space to be accessible to all, including the younger generations worldwide, and the power space offers for science and technology.

Our Bordeaux site's state-of-the-art Mistral Test Bench was opened in July 2024. This project, made possible by GATE Space, took 8 months to bring to life from design to opening and has allowed us to conduct extensive in-house testing for our Mistral thruster, a key component of our Nyx Earth reusable space capsule.   A heartfelt thank you to the GATE Space team, especially Daniel Frank, Simon Schobesberger, Andreas Ungersböck, and Alexander Sebo, for their innovative engineering and swift efforts that will help us accelerate the development of our capsule. And, as always, a big shout-out to our TEC team for their dedication and expertise in making this happen! 

We have ranked #9 of the Stifted 50 Germany Leaderboard i.e., the fastest-growing startups in Germany. Congratulations to The Exploration Company's team for this achievement! https://lnkd.in/ekEWtqFZ

We have ranked #9 of the Stifted 50 Germany Leaderboard i.e., the fastest-growing startups in Germany. Congratulations to The Exploration Company's team for this achievement! https://lnkd.in/ekEWtqFZ

Yesterday, Bikini made it to space! And Europe regained its autonomous access.   However, the Ariane 6 upper stage faced an anomaly, and the rocket could not launch our capsule in its reentry trajectory. So, while our spacecraft behaved as planned, it is still flying in space attached to the upper stage of Ariane 6: we were not able to perform our atmospheric reentry.   What does that mean for The Exploration Company? 1. Most importantly, our strategy and our journey continue as planned. Our next capsule, Mission Possible, is on-track to fly in H1-2025 with SpaceX. And we are in the middle of our Preliminary Design Review with ESA, for our final vehicle Nyx. 2. While we did not gather the expected reentry data, this is not a problem for our next flights. Indeed, we are not using the same thermal protection as Bikini, and we already collected data for our new thermal protection via plasma tests. 3. We have gathered critical learnings: e.g., we have mastered complex manufacturing processes, we have de-risked our supply chain, we have obtained the re-entry license from the government… and we have passed all steps to qualify our capsule and launch it to space. This has trained the team to the utmost level of professionalism and has developed technical assets for our next flights.   Of course, we are disappointed that the flight did not happen as expected. We anticipated and accepted this risk. And our team, our investors and our partners know that we did everything we could, to make it a success. So, everyone stays committed to the next steps.   I am proud of my team. I am grateful to our investors and our partners for this achievement. The journey continues and we fly our next capsule in a few months!

Enjoy the picture of Bikini in space.

Yesterday, Bikini made it to space! And Europe regained its autonomous access.   However, the Ariane 6 upper stage faced an anomaly, and the rocket could not launch our capsule in its reentry trajectory. So, while our spacecraft behaved as planned, it is still flying in space attached to the upper stage of Ariane 6: we were not able to perform our atmospheric reentry.   What does that mean for The Exploration Company? 1. Most importantly, our strategy and our journey continue as planned. Our next capsule, Mission Possible, is on-track to fly in H1-2025 with SpaceX. And we are in the middle of our Preliminary Design Review with ESA, for our final vehicle Nyx. 2. While we did not gather the expected reentry data, this is not a problem for our next flights. Indeed, we are not using the same thermal protection as Bikini, and we already collected data for our new thermal protection via plasma tests. 3. We have gathered critical learnings: e.g., we have mastered complex manufacturing processes, we have de-risked our supply chain, we have obtained the re-entry license from the government… and we have passed all steps to qualify our capsule and launch it to space. This has trained the team to the utmost level of professionalism and has developed technical assets for our next flights.   Of course, we are disappointed that the flight did not happen as expected. We anticipated and accepted this risk. And our team, our investors and our partners know that we did everything we could, to make it a success. So, everyone stays committed to the next steps.   I am proud of my team. I am grateful to our investors and our partners for this achievement. The journey continues and we fly our next capsule in a few months!

Bikini Demonstration Mission - Objectives, Learnings and Risks