WASHINGTON \u2014 French startup Latitude intends to perform the first launch of its small launch vehicle from a spaceport in Oman in late 2027.<\/p>\n
The company announced July 1 that it signed a letter of intent with Etlaq Spaceport to use that launch site in Oman for an \u201cexperimental\u201d first launch of its rocket. The announcement was tied to the visit of Oman\u2019s leader, Sultan Haitham bin Tarik Al Said, to France to meet with President Emmanuel Macron.<\/p>\n
Latitude said teams from the company and spaceport have been meeting for the last few weeks to study the feasibility of using Etlaq for the company\u2019s rocket, work that will continue with the signing of the letter of intent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis preparatory phase will allow both parties to precisely assess the technical and operational conditions required for the success of this first campaign,\u201d the company stated.<\/p>\n
The company has been working for several years on a small launch vehicle capable of placing up to 200 kilograms into low Earth orbit. The vehicle was originally named Zephyr, but Latitude now simply refers to it as \u201cour launcher\u201d without a name. The company said last month that it performed two hot-fire tests of the Navier engine that powers the vehicle, starting a full qualification campaign for the engine.<\/p>\n
Latitude said that launching from Oman would \u201ccomplement\u201d plans to also launch from the Guiana Space Center. The company did not disclose how frequently it would launch from Etlaq after that initial flight.<\/p>\n
The spaceport, located on the coast in southern Oman, has to date hosted only sounding rocket launches, but is seeking to expand into orbital launches. Latitude is the third European launch company to announce plans to use the spaceport. Spain\u2019s PLD Space said in February 2025 that it would launch from there<\/a> in addition to French Guiana, while Germany\u2019s HyImpulse said last month that it signed a letter of intent<\/a> to study use of Etlaq for both its suborbital and orbital vehicles.<\/p>\n Both Latitude and Etlaq emphasized geopolitical as well as technical factors in their agreement.<\/p>\n \u201cWorking with partners such as Latitude strengthens our capabilities and reflects the growing confidence of international players in Oman as a future space hub,\u201d said Azzan Kais Al Said, chief executive of Etlaq Spaceport, in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cSpace has become an arena where tomorrow\u2019s strategic balances are being shaped,\u201d said Olivier Zarrouati, chairman of Latitude\u2019s strategic committee, in the statement. \u201cThis signing, on the sidelines of the meeting between President Macron and His Majesty the Sultan, is no coincidence: It reflects the shared ambition of France and Oman to build an independent space capability together. Latitude is proud to be its industrial vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 French startup Latitude intends to perform the first launch of its small launch vehicle from a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[238561,85,46,154016,2595,141,3443,145],"class_list":["post-521287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-etlaq-spaceport","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-latitude","tag-oman","tag-science","tag-sn","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}