CNES Awards Contract to French Spaceplane Startup - European Spaceflight angielski

French spaceplane startup AndroMach announced on 15 May that it had received a CNES contract to begin testing an early prototype of its Banger v1 rocket engine.

Founded in 2023, AndroMach is developing a pair of spaceplanes that will be used to perform suborbital and orbital missions to space. The suborbital ENVOL spaceplane will utilize turbojet engines for takeoff and landing, and a pressure-fed LOX/biopropane rocket engine to reach space. Test flights of this smaller vehicle will begin in early 2027. The larger ÉTOILE “orbital shuttle” is designed to be launched by a variety of small launch vehicles and will be capable of carrying payloads of up to 100 kilograms. According to the company, initial test flights of ÉTOILE are expected to begin at the beginning of the next decade.