Arion-2  ------> Miura-5
 
 

Payload (PLD) Space
 

History: PLD Space (founders Raul Torres and Raul Verdu) is developing conventional small rocket launchers for suborbital and orbital markets, Arion-1 and Arion-2. Founded in 2011, the company targets to provide commercial and scientific access to space in the fields of space technologies, picosatellites and nanosatellites, microgravity scientific investigation and defense technologies.

  PLD wants to develop small launchers called Arion. In a first phase will develop the suborbital rocket Arion-1. Arion-1 will take off from the base of INTA's El Arenosillo and reach a maximum height of 300 km before falling into the Atlantic Ocean.

The Arion-1 has a launch mass of 2.4 tons, a length of 12.4 meters, a diameter of 0.64 m and is capable of launching up to 250 kg payload. The key to everything is the launcher propulsion system. PLD Space has chosen kerosene and liquid oxygen as the combination of safer and more efficient propellants. Arion-1 uses for the first stage an open-cycle engine with 70 kN thrust, called PLDK70-A, while the second stage uses a pressure-feed motor with 25 kN thrust (PLDK20-B).
Note: The new version of Arion-1 is a one-stage vehicle.

  If the Arion-1 succeeds, PLD Space wants to go further and create the Arion-2, a small space launcher. The Arion-2 is a three-stage rocket capable of placing 100 kg payload into a low orbit 250 miles high. Its take-off mass would be 7.4 tons and its dimensions would be 20.87 x 1.20 meters. The first stage engine with 200 kN of thrust is formed by four chambers of the engine similar to the first stage of combustion Arion-1.
The second stage uses the Arion-1 engine PLDK20-B, but the duration of 40 seconds is increased to 120 seconds. Also will include a third stage with hypergolic fuel and equipped with a 6 kN engine. It would accelerate the speed.

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Miura-5 (previously called Arion 2) is a planned two-stage orbital recoverable launch vehicle of PLD Space. Miura-5 will be 25 m long and 1.8 m in diameter, capable of inserting 300 kg of payload into a 500 km sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), featuring an optional kick stage that can circularize the orbits of satellites. All stages are planned to be liquid-propelled and its technology is inherited from a Miura-1 suborbital rocket. The first stage is planned to be reusable through the combined use of its engines and parachutes for retrieval.

The Miura-5 will use a TEPREL-C turbopump engine, unlike previous versions which use a pressurized tank cycle. Its reuse capabilities are planned to allow it to be launched 3 times.

On 11 April 2019, PLD Space performed a successful crash and recovery test of the first stage of a Miura-5 demonstrator (1.5 m diameter instead of 1.8 m) in El Arenosillo. The stage was dropped from a height of 5 km, slowed down with three parachutes and touched the water, where it was recovered.


TEPREL (Acronym for Spanish Reusable Propulsion Technologies for Launchers) will help PLD Space to continue their liquid rocket engine program, the first one dedicated to boost the small satellite industry in Europe. This project will help PLD Space to have a 35 kN engine.
PLD Space is working since 2014 with a proprietary propulsion system that will be used as first stage of the suborbital reusable rocket Arion-1 (now Miura-1). So far, the company has performed more than 30 tests of their first liquid rocket engine configuration, called calorimetric version, and now the Spanish Government with TEPREL will help PLD Space to continue its development with the regenerative version and the flight qualification unit.
In cooperation with TEPREL, the company is also working in parallel with a new engine version that uses the same TCA (Thrust Chamber Assembly) but has some modifications to be used as second stage of the PLD Space�s Miura-5 orbital reusable launch vehicle and also with a single shaft kerosene/LOX turbopump. All this propulsion developments will be qualified for the first orbital flight.

 

PLDK engine
The PLDK engine was first tested in 2015. It is a calorimetric engine model, intended to demonstrate combustion stability as well as to acquire relevant information such as ignition and shut-down sequences, pressures and temperatures along the engine, thrust and propellant mass flow rates at different thrust profiles. Additionally, the engine served to test all associated hardware and software at PLD Space Propulsion Test Facilities. The engine is capable to produce a thrust of 28 kN at sea level.
TEPREL-A engine
With the TEPREL-A engine, first tested in 2017, the company included several design upgrades, such as a new combustion chamber design, an improved injector geometry and a regenerative cooling system. The later enables the engine to fire for nearly 2 minutes.
 At sea level, the engine produces a thrust of 32 kN. The chamber pressure of the TEPREL engine is 22 bar. The fuel mixture ratio is 2.35
TEPREL-B engine
TEPREL-B is the first flight version of the TEPREL engine for the Miura-1. Several design improvements have been implemented to reduce the overall weight of the engine. It is equipped with a thrust-vector-control system and a convergent-divergent nozzle, all regeneratively cooled. In May 2019 the first unit of this model was destroyed during a test. After a long investigation PLD Space concluded that the problem was due to excess pressure during engine start at ignition. PLD Space addressed the issue through a combination of improvements to the launch site infrastructure and procedural improvements. It is currently fully operational. In February 2020, PLD Space successfully completed a 122-second test that allowed it to achieve flight rating.
On August 28, 2020, PLD Space completed required tests for the thrust vector control system on the TEPLEL-B rocket engine.
TEPREL-C engine
Flight version of the TEPREL engine to be used in the Miura-5 rocket. It will be able to produce 81.6 kN of thrust at sea level. (TEPREL-C will use a turbopump)
TEPREL-C vacuum: Version of TEPREL-C adapted to vacuum, and capable of re-ignition in microgravity conditions. Capable of 65 kN of thrust.

 


Miura-1

Performance Miura-5

 

 

                  


Arion-2 is canceled, Miura-5 will coming