Driven by the desires of the French government, in particular that of Emmanuel Macron, the team behind HyPrSpace plans to launch its own launcher into the confines of the atmosphere with a first phase of full-scale testing from 2023 and commercialization expected for 2024 assures Alexandre Mangeot, one of the three heads behind the Bordeaux company.
As part of the France 2030 investment plan, the government has already given an envelope of 200 million euros to companies that aim to work on a reusable mini-launcher. A non-existent offer today in France, whose launches are dominated by Arianespace and the Ariane 5 rocket (and soon Ariane 6).
A French mini-launcher for space independence
But while French mini-launchers do not yet exist in the country’s space landscape, the government firmly believes in them and is developing companies in this field. With HyPrSpace, the startup cannot convince the French state. Indeed, the startup has just completed a new fundraising of more than one million euros from recognized players in the field, such as BPI France or Geodesic.
According to the latter of the two companies, the choice of HyPrSpace was not accidental: “The technological breakthrough developed by HyPrSpace and its launch capacity are structuring for the development of the space industry”. A technological breakthrough that therefore appeals, but how does it really materialize?
To understand all the genius behind a project like HyPrSpace, you have to look at the engines of this mini-launcher, and more specifically their propulsion system. The latter is indeed hybrid, that is to say that the OB-1 launcher (that’s its little name) will not consume solid propellants (as the majority of rockets do), but a mixture of solid and liquid propellants.
Solid, liquid or hybrid propulsion?
It is this combination which theoretically makes it possible to reach powers of thrust never seen before. But although known since the early 1960s, this propulsion system has never managed to convince the space world, especially on the other side of the Atlantic where physical propulsion has long been preferred.
The latter has the advantage of being linear and offering a very interesting weight/power ratio for space. The main disadvantage of solid propulsion is that it is quite uncontrollable. Once launched the booster (because it is that in the majority of cases) will empty its tank and offer a continuous thrust, impossible to manage the intensity or the duration of the latter.
It was with this propulsion system that the boosters of the shuttle Challenger, sadly famous for its accident in January 1986, took off. With liquid propellant propulsion, NASA engineers could have regained control before the crash and thus avoided the worst for the astronauts, at least in theory.
A unique project on European soil
Today only SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic’s rocket plane, operates with a hybrid propulsion system and HyPrSpace claims to have developed a system that is even more efficient than that of its American neighbour. Indeed, if Richard Branson’s company manages to get its rocket plane off the ground to reach the frontier of space, does the Bordeaux startup expect to launch payloads, up to 250 kilograms, into orbit around Earth.
According to Alexandre Mangeot, holder of a doctorate on the subject, hybrid propulsion could become the future of space and it allows HyPrSpace to make significant savings, particularly in the manufacture and logistics of such an engine.