The Exploration Company

Our Bordeaux site's state-of-the-art Mistral Test Bench was opened in July 2024. This project, made possible by GATE Space, took 8 months to bring to life from design to opening and has allowed us to conduct extensive in-house testing for our Mistral thruster, a key component of our Nyx Earth reusable space capsule.   A heartfelt thank you to the GATE Space team, especially Daniel Frank, Simon Schobesberger, Andreas Ungersböck, and Alexander Sebo, for their innovative engineering and swift efforts that will help us accelerate the development of our capsule. And, as always, a big shout-out to our TEC team for their dedication and expertise in making this happen! 

We have ranked #9 of the Stifted 50 Germany Leaderboard i.e., the fastest-growing startups in Germany. Congratulations to The Exploration Company's team for this achievement! https://lnkd.in/ekEWtqFZ

We have ranked #9 of the Stifted 50 Germany Leaderboard i.e., the fastest-growing startups in Germany. Congratulations to The Exploration Company's team for this achievement! https://lnkd.in/ekEWtqFZ

Yesterday, Bikini made it to space! And Europe regained its autonomous access.   However, the Ariane 6 upper stage faced an anomaly, and the rocket could not launch our capsule in its reentry trajectory. So, while our spacecraft behaved as planned, it is still flying in space attached to the upper stage of Ariane 6: we were not able to perform our atmospheric reentry.   What does that mean for The Exploration Company? 1. Most importantly, our strategy and our journey continue as planned. Our next capsule, Mission Possible, is on-track to fly in H1-2025 with SpaceX. And we are in the middle of our Preliminary Design Review with ESA, for our final vehicle Nyx. 2. While we did not gather the expected reentry data, this is not a problem for our next flights. Indeed, we are not using the same thermal protection as Bikini, and we already collected data for our new thermal protection via plasma tests. 3. We have gathered critical learnings: e.g., we have mastered complex manufacturing processes, we have de-risked our supply chain, we have obtained the re-entry license from the government… and we have passed all steps to qualify our capsule and launch it to space. This has trained the team to the utmost level of professionalism and has developed technical assets for our next flights.   Of course, we are disappointed that the flight did not happen as expected. We anticipated and accepted this risk. And our team, our investors and our partners know that we did everything we could, to make it a success. So, everyone stays committed to the next steps.   I am proud of my team. I am grateful to our investors and our partners for this achievement. The journey continues and we fly our next capsule in a few months!

Enjoy the picture of Bikini in space.

Yesterday, Bikini made it to space! And Europe regained its autonomous access.   However, the Ariane 6 upper stage faced an anomaly, and the rocket could not launch our capsule in its reentry trajectory. So, while our spacecraft behaved as planned, it is still flying in space attached to the upper stage of Ariane 6: we were not able to perform our atmospheric reentry.   What does that mean for The Exploration Company? 1. Most importantly, our strategy and our journey continue as planned. Our next capsule, Mission Possible, is on-track to fly in H1-2025 with SpaceX. And we are in the middle of our Preliminary Design Review with ESA, for our final vehicle Nyx. 2. While we did not gather the expected reentry data, this is not a problem for our next flights. Indeed, we are not using the same thermal protection as Bikini, and we already collected data for our new thermal protection via plasma tests. 3. We have gathered critical learnings: e.g., we have mastered complex manufacturing processes, we have de-risked our supply chain, we have obtained the re-entry license from the government… and we have passed all steps to qualify our capsule and launch it to space. This has trained the team to the utmost level of professionalism and has developed technical assets for our next flights.   Of course, we are disappointed that the flight did not happen as expected. We anticipated and accepted this risk. And our team, our investors and our partners know that we did everything we could, to make it a success. So, everyone stays committed to the next steps.   I am proud of my team. I am grateful to our investors and our partners for this achievement. The journey continues and we fly our next capsule in a few months!

Bikini Demonstration Mission - Objectives, Learnings and Risks

Our first wind tunnel test campaign is complete. During the past weeks, we have successfully explored the hypersonic regime of our Nyx spacecraft. Throughout the campaign, sixteen wind tunnel test conditions were run, carrying out a series of analyses from forces and moments measurements to oil flow visualisations. Test data show a statically stable shape in the hypersonic regime, a good correlation with our numerical simulations and confirms our capsule’s ability to re-enter through the atmosphere.   Below two pictures of the Nyx model in the wind tunnel test chamber: a synthetic colour Schlieren image showing the shock wave pattern around Nyx and an oil flow visualisation indicating the boundary of flow separation.   Special thanks to Prof. Dr. Ali Gülhan, Johannes Riehmer, Michael Kosbow and Marco Schmors from the Supersonic and Hypersonic Technologies Department of the German Aerospace Center (DLR).   And congratulations to The Exploration Company's team with special thanks to Antoine Pallois, Hermes Scandelli, Pablo Arco Tirado, Alexandre GIRARD-REYDET, Giuseppe Oliva, Lisa Wong, Niklas Mechtersheimer.

Our baby reentry demonstrator is under the fairing of Ariane 6. https://lnkd.in/gmWmiaSB

At ILA last week, we signed an agreement with VAST which is entrusting The Exploration Company with one cargo mission. We are grateful to Max Haot and VAST team for their trust in The Exploration Company. Thank you to Walther Pelzer and Bale Dalton who chaired the signature ceremony. And special thanks to Dana Baki from The Exploration Company.