PLD Space signs agreement to launch from spaceport in Oman

WASHINGTON — Spanish company PLD Space plans to conduct launches of its Miura 5 small launch vehicle from a new spaceport in Oman starting as soon as 2027.PLD Space signed an agreement Feb. 20 with Etlaq Spaceport in Oman to conduct Miura 5 launches there. Those launches will begin as soon as 2027, but neither the company nor the spaceport disclosed how many launches they planned to conduct there.Etlaq will be the second spaceport that PLD Space plans to use, after Kourou, French Guiana. The company says Etlaq will support customers in the Middle East for launches to mid-inclination and polar orbits.“Given the current shortage of launch infrastructure, we are excited to announce this strategic collaboration with Etlaq, which presents itself as a strategic solution to meet the needs of our customers globally,” said Raúl Verdú, chief business development officer and co-founder of PLD Space, in a statement. He added that his company and Etlaq would start working on the development of a launch facility there for Miura 5, with the potential to later host launches of its larger Miura Next series of vehicles.The launch site fits into PLD Space’s long-term plans to conduct as many as 30 launches of the Miura 5 annually by 2030. In addition to Kourou and Etlaq, the company says it plans to announce an additional launch site “in a third region of the world” in the coming year.PLD Space is the first major launch company to announce its intent to launch from Etlaq, a spaceport started in 2022 by Oman’s National Aerospace Services Company. The launch site is located in a remote region of the southeastern coast of Oman, enabling launches to the southeast and south.“This collaboration with PLD Space demonstrates the increasing role of Oman in the global space sector,” Sayyid Azzan bin Qais Al Said, founder and chief executive of Etlaq, said in a statement. “By working with international launch providers, we aim to enhance our capabilities and contribute to the growing demand for flexible, efficient, and well-positioned spaceports.”The site has hosted a single launch to date, of a sounding rocket in December 2024. In a separate announcement Feb. 20, Etlaq said it would host five “test launches” in 2025 but did not provide any details about those launches other than it was working with unnamed “international launch partners” in Kuwait, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.“By working with multiple companies operating suborbital and experimental launch vehicles, Etlaq is laying the groundwork for full-scale orbital launch operations,” the spaceport said in a statement.One challenge the spaceport will face in attracting customers is that launch vehicles are typically subject to strict export controls, which would complicate efforts to launch from Oman. The United States, for example, has required technology safeguard agreements to be in place to allow launches of American vehicles even by close allies such as Australia and the United Kingdom.