Credit: Avio / ESA
The European Space Agency has awarded Italian rocket builder Avio a €40 million contract to design a reusable rocket stage demonstrator.
ESA first published a call for the Phase 1 development of a reusable rocket upper stage in March 2024. This initial phase focused on the “identification of the technology-maturation needs for the reusable upper stage demonstration.” While the agency did not release any information about the companies involved in Phase 1, it appears that the phase lasted approximately 12 months, culminating in ESA’s publication of the Phase 2 call in May 2025. According to the call, this second phase would include activities “up to a critical design milestone.”
On 29 September, ESA announced that it had awarded a €40 million contract to Avio for Phase 2 of the project’s development. Over the next 24 months, the Italian company will complete the demonstrator mission’s “system requirements and technological solutions, ending with a preliminary design for both the flight and ground segments.” This scope of work appears to fall short of reaching a critical design milestone, as outlined in the original call.
“We are capitalising on progress made in advanced liquid propulsion, reentry, recoverability , and reusability technologies, complementing ongoing efforts to de-risk demonstrations of reusable lower stages, supporting different possible scenarios, including evolutions of the Vega family of rockets , as well as other newly defined fully reusable launch systems in Europe,” said ESA’s Chief Technical Advisor for Space Transportation Giorgio Tumino.
While few specifics have been disclosed about the Avio proposal, an accompanying graphic appears to depict the first stage as a P120C solid-fuel booster, which serves as the first stage of the company’s Vega C rocket. If the first stage is indeed a P120C booster and the upper stage is to scale, the completed demonstrator will likely stand at approximately 36.5 metres tall.
The reusable upper stage depicted in the graphic bears a resemblance, at least in appearance, to that of SpaceX’s Starship, suggesting propulsive recovery. In its 29 September press release, Avio stated that it will draw on its expertise with methalox liquid propulsion systems for the project, likely indicating that the stage will be powered by an array of the company’s MR10 rocket engines, which are being developed for the upper stage of its future Vega E rocket.
In addition to its experience with liquid propulsion systems, Avio’s release stated that it would also utilise “knowledge acquired through the Space Rider re-entry vehicle programme.” Avio is, however, not involved in that side of the Space Rider programme. The company is the prime contractor for the service module, which it is developing on the platform of a Vega C upper stage. The service module, however, does not reenter the atmosphere. Thales Alenia Space is leading work on the Space Rider re-entry module with contributions from Beyond Gravity, CIRA, SENER, GMV, Frentech, SABCA, ArianeGroup, and CIMSA.