{"id":200491,"date":"2025-12-19T17:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/200491\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T17:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T17:35:09","slug":"mt-aerospace-cfrp-upper-stage-tank-for-ariane-6-passes-preliminary-design-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/200491\/","title":{"rendered":"MT Aerospace CFRP upper stage tank for Ariane 6 passes preliminary design review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"js-lightbox\" href=\"https:\/\/d2n4wb9orp1vta.cloudfront.net\/cms\/brand\/cw\/2026-cw\/1225-cw-news-mtaerospace-costelas-update.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">     <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"COSTELAS project tank.\" data-height=\"1366\" data-width=\"2048\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1225-cw-news-mtaerospace-costelas-update.jpg;maxWidth=720.jpeg\" width=\"720px\" height=\"480px\"\/> <\/a><\/p>\n<p data-track-changes-ignore=\"ignore\">Source | MT Aerospace AG<\/p>\n<p>The Cost-Optimized Sandwich Technology for Large-scale Structures (COSTELAS) project has reached a new milestone in the development of a more efficient, higher-performing Ariane 6 upper stage,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mt-aerospace.de\/index-en.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">MT Aerospace\u00a0AG<\/a> (Augsburg, Germany) reports. Since passing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.compositesworld.com\/news\/mt-aerospace-completes-costela-project-critical-design-review\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">critical design review<\/a> in September 2024, the\u00a0company\u2019s carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite intertank structure also passed preliminary design review in December 2025.<\/p>\n<p>With this achievement, MT Aerospace confirms its capability and readiness to take next steps toward high-performance and cost-efficient composite upper stages for Europe\u2019s launch vehicles. The upper stage tank\u2019s\u00a0segmented sandwich panel architecture has been achieved through automated fiber placement (AFP) and one-shot curing for\u00a0enhanced industrial efficiency. MT Aerospace reports significant\u00a0mass reduction \u2014 translating to a 1:1 payload increase.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esa.int\/Enabling_Support\/Space_Transportation\/Launch_vehicles\/Ariane_6_overview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Ariane 6 rocket<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Since 2018, the ESA-funded Launchers Preparatory Program (FLPP) has been working to optimize the Ariane 6 rocket\u2019s upper stage, and thus reusable launcher systems generally, using cutting-edge technologies (read \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.compositesworld.com\/news\/phoebus-project-makes-progress-on-cfrp-liquid-oxygen-hydrogen-upper-stage-tanks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">PHOEBUS project makes progress on CFRP liquid oxygen, hydrogen upper stage tanks<\/a>\u201d). COSTELAS is actively aiming for this goal through its use of carbon fiber composites.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>COSTELAS\u2019 2 \u00d7\u00a03-meter\u00a0composite structure passed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.compositesworld.com\/news\/mt-aerospace-completes-costela-project-critical-design-review\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">critical design review<\/a> in September 2024. Partner Applus+ IMA (Dresden, Germany) handled a series of static tests on the CFRP sandwich structures, with positive results.<\/p>\n<p>MT Aerospace AG has a long history of additive manufacturing, metalworking, CFRP and hydrogen technology capabilities. Its work in composites spans projects like this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.compositesworld.com\/articles\/optimizing-a-cfrp-landing-leg-demonstrator\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CFRP landing leg demonstrator<\/a> and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.compositesworld.com\/search?q=MT%20Aerospace\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CFRP hydrogen tank<\/a> in the ComET project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Source | MT Aerospace AG The Cost-Optimized Sandwich Technology for Large-scale Structures (COSTELAS) project has reached a new&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,82,247],"class_list":{"0":"post-200491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}