Two Europe-based space startup companies, Germany’s Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) AG and the UK’s Lúnasa Ltd, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to formalise their cooperation regarding the provision of space launch services. The MoU was signed on Tuesday at the Space Tech Expo Europe, in Bremen, in Germany. Together, the two companies aim to provide flexible and cost-effective launch services to customers seeking to deploy small satellites.

RFA is focused on the development of an affordable small satellite launch rocket, designated RFA ONE. This would be powered by its own in-house developed staged combustion rocket engines. The company achieved a successful eight second hot fire test of its rocket earlier this year. The RFA ONE will be produced using industrial automation (ensuring a highly efficient assembly process). It will have three stages, the first stage being powered by nine of the company’s staged combustion engines, and the second stage by one (for a total of ten). The third stage will be the payload platform and nose cone.

The complete rocket will stand 30 m tall, with a diameter of 2 m. It will be able to lift a 1 600 kg payload into an orbit similar to that of the International Space Station (which has an east-west orbit with an inclination of 51.6°, at an altitude of about 420 km), or a 650 kg payload into a 2 000 km altitude polar orbit (with various other alternative combinations possible in-between).

Lúnasa is developing a reusable orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) for small satellites, which it has named VIA. Post-launch, the OTV would be able to move small satellites from the orbit of their carrier rocket to their own final orbits, anywhere in low Earth orbit space. This would mean that these satellites would not need to expend any of their own fuel to achieve their final orbits, thereby extending their lives. It could also be used to change the orbits of satellites.

The VIA would be able to transport one 200 kg satellite, or a number of smaller satellites, at a time. It would also be able to carry and support a payload of up to 20 kg itself, through its mission. The company is currently working towards executing an in-orbit demonstration mission during mid-2023, which would be followed by the commercial launch of VIA.

“From the beginning, we designed our RFA ONE to be compatible with other transfer vehicles,” pointed out RFA CEO Dr Stefan Tweraser. “Lúnasa’s reusable ‘VIA’ are [sic] optimal complements to our own launch vehicle technology and allow us to offer our launch services in an even more diversified and tailored way.”

“Lúnasa and RFA’s objectives are well aligned in the desire to enable [small and medium-sized enterprises], universities and other entities to innovate and provide services and technologies otherwise dominated by larger companies due to [the] prohibitive cost of access to space,” explained Lúnasa founder and CEO Amin Chabi. “We believe this will remove some of the barriers to entry and stimulate the space market with even more competitive and cutting edge products whilst creating more jobs.”