With MaiaSpace, France hopes to relaunch the race for reusable rockets

A fine line-up of ministers are making an official visit to the ArianeGroup site in Vernon, Eure, while awaiting a presidential lyrical outburst from Emmanuel Macron next week at the Paris Air Show: in the absence of being able to act on the political front, the executive has its head in the stars. This Friday late afternoon, no fewer than four members of the Bayrou government will come to formalize "significant financial support" from the public authorities to MaiaSpace, a start-up created in 2021 by Airbus and Safran, the two major shareholders of ArianeGroup, with the objective of developing a reusable mini-launcher in four years... unlike the Ariane 6 rocket which made its first flight a year ago.

The Minister of the Economy, Eric Lombard, the Minister of Industry, Marc Ferracci, the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, and the Minister of Higher Education and Research, Philippe Baptiste, will be welcomed around 4:30 p.m. by the CEO of MaiaSpace, Yann Leroy, in Vernon, where the company will build its "MaiaFactory", the factory which will produce the small reusable Maia rocket from 2027. "They come to signify the priority given by the government to the space sector and reusable launchers at a pivotal moment and in a key segment, the one currently dominated by SpaceX , " explained the office of the Minister of the Economy beforehand. "The aim is to highlight the Maia project and the Maia Factory as a success of public-private investment, with the support of the State."

MaiaSpace, which was originally allocated a budget of €125 million by ArianeGroup, will thus benefit from new "substantial" investments from its shareholders, but also from public authorities as part of the France 2030 Plan. The amount has not been disclosed, due to business confidentiality, but MaiaSpace is expected to become one of the best-funded European space startups in the reusable mini-launcher sector, along with the German company Isar Aerospace and the British company Orbex. "Maia is in competition with other mini-launcher projects in Europe, but we will show that France is rallying behind its champion," emphasizes the entourage of Eric Lombard and Marc Ferracci.

MaiaSpace, which already employs more than 300 engineers and technicians, will also create 160 new jobs for its "MaiaFactory": a brand new factory installed on 10,000 m2 within the Vernon site and which will assemble the various elements of the future reusable rocket. This ultra-secure site nestled in the forest of the Seine loops, which Libération was able to visit in the past , housed the beginnings of the French space program from the 1950s, with the invaluable assistance of German scientists from the von Braun team, recovered by the French army after the Nazi capitulation. Ariane and its Vinci engines, and now Vulcain, were born there in the wake of the pioneering "Véronique" rocket.

Today, the MaiaSpace teams will test and assemble a much more modern prototype: a 50-meter-high rocket powered by a reusable first stage that will run on three Prometheus engines, each with a thrust of 100 tons, fueled by liquid methane. The vehicle will be able to carry 500 kilos to 4 tons of payload depending on its configuration, to put satellites into low orbit at an altitude of 700 km. This is far from the capabilities of medium and heavy launchers like Falcon 9 and Ariane 6, which can each carry around twenty tons. Not to mention the Falcon Heavy launcher, which can carry 63 tons of payload. But the development of the small Maia rocket is "a way of waking up to European space" and "finally gaining total sovereignty" in terms of reusable access to space, ministerial sources emphasize.

Europe is indeed completely overtaken today by Elon Musk's SpaceX firm , which is expected to carry out 180 launches of its reusable Falcon 9 rocket this year, while the new Ariane 6 rocket, whose stages are not recoverable, is planning on just ten launches. But the technologies tested by MaiaSpace, particularly those deployed by the rocket engine, could quickly be used by ArianeGroup to develop a finally reusable version of its Ariane rocket. Initial tests have already taken place in Vernon with the Themis demonstrator developed by CNES to prefigure this future "ArianeNext." And the idea of ​​having reusable launchers that drastically reduce costs is also exciting the military for the launch of observation satellites and new classes of strategic missiles.

"Maia can be reused up to five times, it's a tremendous sovereignty issue that opens up to us with many technological innovations that will have dual civil and military applications," emphasizes the entourage of the Minister of Defense. "Maïa is also an essential link in preparing the future of launchers and it is all the more important since Earth and climate sciences rely on a significant space infrastructure, we need autonomous access to space," notes an advisor to the Minister of Research. A way of reminding that France and Europe can no longer rely on the goodwill of an unpredictable billionaire like Elon Musk to advance climate research from space.

A year ago, a few weeks before the first Ariane 6 launch on July 9, 2024, Emmanuel Macron expressed his desire to "create French-style SpaceX" and his intention to make the Kourou base in French Guiana "Europe's spaceport." The head of state is therefore expected to welcome the progress represented by this new investment in MaiaSpace and salute the "pioneering spirit" rediscovered by ArianeGroup, during a speech at the Paris Air Show scheduled for next Thursday or Friday. The first launch of the Maia rocket is scheduled to take place between 2026 and 2027 from the Kourou base, where the rocket will occupy the launch pad left vacant by the Russian Soyuz rocket since the invasion of Ukraine. And the Vernon factory is expected to begin producing launchers immediately thereafter.

MaiaSpace signed its first commercial contract on March 20 with Exotrail: this French start-up specializing in space logistics plans to entrust it with the deployment of its "space van," a vehicle that will transport other satellites once in space.