WASHINGTON — Spanish launch vehicle startup PLD Space has secured a loan to help fund development of the launch site of its Miura 5 rocket in French Guiana.
PLD Space announced Dec. 2 that it obtained a 11 million euro ($11.6 million) loan from COFIDES, a Spanish financing agency, that will go towards construction of launch facilities at the Guiana Space Center at Kourou, French Guiana.
PLD Space said it plans to spend 16 million euros overall on the launch facility there that will be used for its Miura 5 small launch vehicle. That rocket is slated to make its inaugural launch as soon as late 2025.
“We appreciate COFIDES’ confidence in PLD Space,” Ezequiel Sánchez, executive president of PLD Space, said in a statement. “This support inspires us to continue driving European space sovereignty while strengthening its strategic space infrastructure.”
The launch site will be at the former Diamant launch pad in French Guiana, which the French space agency CNES is now offering to small launch vehicle developers as a shared-use facility. PLD Space has 15,765 square meters at the site, where it will build both the launch pad itself as well as an integration facility and control center.
The funding comes nearly two months after the company rolled out an ambitious roadmap for future development, of which Miura 5 is just the first step. PLD Space plans to develop a line of medium- to heavy-lift launch vehicles called Miura Next as well as a crewed spacecraft, Lince.
In an interview in October, Raúl Torres, chief executive of PLD Space, noted the company had raised about 155 million euros to date, enough to fully fund development of Miura 5. He estimated the company would ultimately need to raise at least 700 million euros for Miura Next and the first version of Lince.