ElevationSpace advances work on commercial reentry vehicle
TOKYO - A Japanese startup developing reentry vehicles is signing up customers and preparing for its first mission while keeping a watchful eye on SpaceX's entry into the market.
ElevationSpace announced July 9 a memorandum of understanding with Space Cargo Unlimited, a Luxembourg-based space manufacturing company. Under the agreement, the companies will study flying Space Cargo Unlimited's experiment platform, called BentoBox, on ElevationSpace's reentry vehicles.
"By combining Space Cargo Unlimited's microgravity production platform with ElevationSpace's innovative return capabilities, we ensure that highly sensitive payloads, such as pharmaceutical and biotechnology samples, can be returned safely to Earth, creating a stronger foundation for the next generation of commercial space services," Nicolas Gaume, chief executive of Space Cargo Unlimited, said in a statement.
ElevationSpace is developing a line of reentry vehicles for returning cargo from space. The ELS-R spacecraft is a free flyer that would launch to low Earth orbit and host payloads before returning them to Earth. The ELS-RS would launch to a space station on a cargo spacecraft, returning payloads from the station.
A key aspect of the company's technology is the use of lift-controlled reentry. That approach reduces peak deceleration loads on the spacecraft compared to a traditional ballistic reentry and also allows for a more precise landing.
"In terms of gentleness, it is suitable for any payload," said Kazunari Miyamaru, chief operating officer of ElevationSpace, during a panel discussion at the Spacetide conference here July 9. "It enables a reliable landing anywhere."
ElevationSpace is working on a reentry demonstrator called AOBA, part of its ELS-R line, scheduled to launch in mid-2027. It announced June 19 that it closed a $40 million Series B round, bringing the total raised by the 90-person company to $63.5 million.
The efforts of ElevationSpace and other companies developing reentry vehicles are facing new competition from SpaceX. That company flew the first test flight of its Starfall vehicle June 23, with the vehicle reentering over the Pacific a couple of hours after launch.
Starfall, according to Federal Aviation Administration environmental documents, is designed to carry up to 1,000 kilograms of payload inside a disk-shaped vehicle. The design of the Starfall vehicle appears to be optimized for SpaceX's Starship vehicle, although the first Starfall demonstrator was launched on a Falcon 9.
Starfall has led to concerns that SpaceX could disrupt the nascent reentry vehicle market in much the same way the company has done in launch. Miyamaru, though, said there should be room for multiple companies with different capabilities.
"It's evidence for opening up this market," he said of Starfall, drawing an analogy to commercial aviation. "In the airline world, there are several types of aircraft: two-aisle widebody jets and smaller jets. It depends on customer demand and cadence."
Others on the panel had similar sentiments. "If we are looking at the world today and we are thinking about what countries have reentry capabilities so far, there are very few. You can count them on one hand," said Dana Baki, chief commercial officer of The Exploration Company, which is developing the Nyx capsule.
"There's a clear market gap," she said. "Now is the time because we don't want the world to be dependent on one country or one company."
"I think the lesson we need to take from looking at launch and access to space is to be confident in the size of the market for reentry," said Jeremy Hallett, chairman of the board of Southern Launch, the Australian company that operates launch and reentry sites.
"You guys stay the course and keep winning because we need more competition," he told Miyamaru.
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