the first private rocket manages to rise into space before falling into the ocean

The inaugural shot took place at 2:19 a.m., from a military base in the province of Huelva. After several postponements, the Spanish start-up PLD Space managed, on Saturday October 7, to fly its Miura-1 prototype from Andalusia. This first step is supposed to bring Spain into the club of space nations.

The theft took place “with success” and allowed to wait “all technical objectives” wanted, assured the company in a press release. The 2.5-ton rocket rose to its peak 46 kilometers above the Gulf of Cádiz, high enough to move away from the atmosphere but not high enough to orbit the Earth.

A “historic” shot

After five minutes of flight, it ended its journey, as expected, in the Atlantic Ocean, where the company planned to send a team to recover the device.

“This launch is the fruit of more than twelve years of work”underlined the co-founder and CEO of PLD Space Raul Torres, welcoming a shot “historical”. With this flight, “Spain becomes the tenth country in the world to have a direct space capability”insists the company.

The launch of Miura-1, a 12-meter-high rocket, was suspended for the first time on May 31 due to strong wind gusts at altitude, then a second time on June 17, due to a problem on the one of the energy supply pipes.