The European Space Agency and Dassault Aviation paving the way for potential collaborations

The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Dassault Aviation, a French civilian and military aircraft manufacturer recognized worldwide for its excellence, underlying their common interest to develop a closer relationship.

ESA, with its ambitious strategy for space exploration, Explore2040, is seeking innovative solutions for capabilities development to reach and return from Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Moon and Mars, and supports the advancement of selected critical enabling technologies to be used and demonstrated in particular in LEO, such as hypervelocity re-entry.

Dassault Aviation, also a leader in aerospace engineering, is developing its space activities with a focus on the design of a reusable spaceplane based on lifting bodies shapes that bridge aeronautical and space technologies. Their interest in automated LEO platforms suitable for commercial and institutional markets, led them to develop a vehicle concept called “Véhicule Orbital Réutilisable de Transport et d'Exploration (VORTEX)”, designed for research in space, transport of cargo to and from space stations, and a range of in-orbit services. This project is based on a considerable expertise in spaceplanes having participated in numerous programmes like Hermes, NASA X-38 Crew Rescue vehicle, ESA Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) demonstrator, and Airborne Reusable Hypersonic Experimental Vehicle (VEHRA) concepts.

“Dassault Aviation’s decades of expertise in aeronautical and space systems, perfectly position them to pioneer critical space technologies”, said Josef Aschbacher, Director General of the European Space Agency. “With VORTEX, Dassault is contributing to strengthening European capacities and securing sovereign access to space in a strongly growing and competitive space sector. We look forward to combining our expertise and working hand-in-hand for a stronger Europe in space.”

“Our Vortex roadmap aims to strengthen Europe's essential sovereign capabilities and meet the new challenges of the space economy. This letter of intent is a perfect recognition of the complementary expertise of the European Space Agency and Dassault Aviation in the development of critical technologies and innovative space solutions,” declared Eric Trappier, Chaiman and CEO of Dassault Aviation.

As such, the signatories of the LoI, have identified a mutual interest in developing a closer relationship with the potential to commonly derisking critical technologies as well as to further explore the potential for collaboration in areas such as LEO destinations and particularly around orbital vehicules. As such, both foresee an interest to cooperate on a scaled down suborbital version of VORTEX, serving as a testbed, with a focus on, but not limited to:

- Designing, testing and qualifying key technologies and components.

- New materials and integration processes.

- Assessing the feasibility to include future payloads in case of the integration of a dedicated bay on the end-product.

This joint work will be based on exchanging relevant information and conducting studies or preparatory activities, to help establish respective roles and responsibilities in the realisation of potential joint activities, leveraging on each side’s capabilities.

“Europe benefits from a wide range of diverse and complementary skills. Enlarging the European industrial base is key for new opportunities arising in Space Exploration, aiming at more autonomy,” said Daniel Neuenschwander, Director of Human and Robotic Exploration at ESA.