ESA’s Space Rider Successfully Completes Drop Test Campaign

On August 5, 2024, ESA published pictures and a video of a Space Rider model performing a helicopter drop test at the Salto di Quirra Italian Defence Test and Training Range (PISQ), Sardinia, Italy. Similar in total mass and weight distribution to the future European spaceplane, the model was dropped at an altitude of 3.5 km, testing first the drogue chutes to slow down the vehicle and then the 27 m long and 10 m wide paraglider, controlled from the ground. The test model softly landed as planned, losing altitude at a speed of 12 Kmh.

Drop it like it's hot 🪂

Future autonomous orbital laboratory Space Rider undergoes drop tests in Sardinia 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/k1MEO8lic6

— ESA Space Transport (@ESA_transport) August 5, 2024

Since April 2024, the Space Rider team led by Thales Alenia Space has been undergoing a test campaign part of Phase D of the spaceplane development, scheduled to be completed in Autumn 2024. During the next months, the team has planned additional drop tests to validate the parachute system and to develop the flight control algorithm to automate the landing operations completely.

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Europe’s way of routine access to space

The Space Reusable Integrated Demonstrator for Europe Return (Space Rider) is an uncrewed orbital laboratory made by a service module, providing all the orbital flight controls and power services, and a spaceplane reentry module, which will host a wide range of micro-gravity experiments and bring them to the ground.

The spacecraft will be fully autonomous and capable of missions up to sixty days in orbit. Its reusable design is key to providing Europe autonomous and affordable access to low Earth orbit.

The Space Rider predecessor, the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) made a successful flight and reentry test in 2015, providing precious information to develop the technologies for the operational vehicle. After years of design review and technical challenges, the first qualification flight of Space Rider is currently scheduled for the third quarter of 2025, following the ongoing test campaign and the flight model assembly.

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Future factories in space: autonomous spaceplanes and capsules

The Space Rider program aims to facilitate the execution of research experiments in various fields, such as biology, natural sciences, biomedicine, and pharmaceuticals. This orbital laboratory will support space agencies, universities, and private companies in developing the technologies needed to produce specific microgravity goods for future space factories.

Other initiatives like REV1 by Space Cargo Unlimited and Winnebago-1 by Varda Space Industries are paving the way for the next industrial revolution. They have in common the same objective, but with different technological approaches for the reentry phase.

REV1 has a spaceplane reentry module with a design similar to Space Rider and is constructed by the same company, Thales Alenia Space. Varda’s spacecraft reentry module is a hypersonic capsule, still hosting the factory and the goods, but with different reentry capabilities.

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