Avio bags €40M ESA contract for reusable rocket stage, but don't hold your breath

Industry insiders whisper more about posturing than practical progress

Italian rocket company Avio has signed a €40 million contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a reusable upper stage, a project already drawing skepticism from industry watchers.

The 24-month contract covers the requirements, design, and enabling technologies necessary to develop a demonstrator capable of returning to Earth and being reused in future missions.

ESA told The Register that the component, dubbed the reusable upper stage demonstration, would be "integrated as an additional stage on top of a P160C solid rocket motor, on a future Vega configuration."

The P160C was built as the first stage of the Vega C+ rocket and will eventually be used on the Ariane 6 rocket to boost payload capacity. It is also planned to be used as the first stage of the Vega E launcher. Currently, the P120C solid-fuel motor is used by the Vega C and Ariane 6 launch vehicles.

Even though the P160C is unlikely to be used until 2027, two years is not long to come up with a design for a reusable upper stage. Today's Vega C uses a P120C solid rocket motor as its first stage and a Zefiro 40 for its second. If ESA's comment remains correct during the development process, the reusable upper stage, which currently resembles a shrunken version of SpaceX's Starship, would replace the Zefiro.

Render of Avio and ESA reusable upper stage concept (pic: Avio)

SpaceX looms large over legacy rockets. The Falcon 9 has proven the benefits of reusability, although only the first stage of the rocket can be reused. The Vega C and Ariane 6 rockets are expendable, though ESA is working toward first-stage reusability with the Themis project. Reusability is critical if a launcher is to be commercially viable, and SpaceX demonstrated a successful booster landing as part of a commercial mission in 2015.

Reuse of an upper stage, which will be an order of magnitude more complicated, has yet to be demonstrated, although there is a good chance that SpaceX will catch a returning Starship upper stage sometime next year or the year after.

Several within the space community expressed skepticism regarding the initiative, with one insider telling The Register that politics and posturing were likely also at work.

ESA told The Register that it is too early to determine what the payload/performance impact will be when the system is declared operational.

"Several system concepts are currently being explored," the agency said. "These could include dedicated reusable lower stages either aligned with ongoing activities in Europe or newly designed for this purpose." ®