Ex-Airbus manager Helene Huby’s Exploration Company wants to manufacture space capsules in Europe. This could end Elon Musk’s SpaceX monopoly in this area. A first prototype is to be launched into space this year.
Helene Huby is reaching for the stars with her Exploration Company. The Franco-German space company of the former high-ranking Airbus manager announced that it had raised 40.5 million euros from investors as part of an early financing round (Series A). This is the largest Series A financing for a European space company to date. Among other things, the money will be used to launch a first prototype later this year – the “baby space capsule” weighing around 40 kilograms and with a diameter of 60 centimeters, said Huby, co-founder and head of The Exploration Company Reuters news agency.
The year after, the slightly larger “teenager” version will follow, and in 2026 the “adult” version, weighing eight tons and having a diameter of 4.5 meters, will be able to test docking maneuvers for the first time. “To date, there is no European solution for transporting goods and people to the space stations around the earth and the moon,” Huby added. Among commercial providers, SpaceX, the space company of Tesla boss Elon Musk, is ahead with the “Dragon” capsule. It carries cargo and people to the ISS space station with the help of the company’s own launch vehicle “Falcon 9”. SpaceX now has almost a monopoly here, said Ted Persson, partner at venture capitalist EQT Ventures.
If you keep in mind that in the coming years there will be several space stations orbiting the earth, there is definitely room for several providers. Founded in 2021, the Exploration Company is developing the reusable space capsule Nyx, which will transport cargo and people to space stations and, in the long term, to the moon. It can be refueled with biomethane in space and carried into space on the tip of various rockets. The versions for use in low earth orbit use concentrated hydrogen peroxide, which can also be used for bleaching, as fuel.
Huby explained that she and her co-founders chose Wessling, Bavaria, as the headquarters for The Exploration Company because of its proximity to the Technical University of Munich, among other things. There are also numerous aerospace and software companies in the area. The German Aerospace Center Oberpfaffenhofen is a few minutes away by car.
