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French small launch developerLatitudehas closed $ 30 million in new capital as it eyes the first trajectory of its Zephyr rocket in 2025 .
While other rocket company are going bigger , rise even more massive rockets , Latitude is taking a dissimilar approach : light , modest and hopefully cheap enough to beat out out contender . Its first roquette , Zephyr , will put up at just 62 groundwork and will be subject of delivering up to 100 kg of payload to low Earth orbit . ( For reference , SpaceX ’s Falcon 9 has a lading capacity of 22,800 kg to LEO . ) The two - stage skyrocket will be powered by eight 3D - printed engine called Navier , which Latitude is developing in - family .
In a statement , Latitude CEO and co - father Stanislas Maximin pronounce 2024 would be a “ pivotal yr ” before Zephyr ’s first flight of steps in 2025 .
Indeed , the company aims to use the financing to remain develop the next iteration of Zephyr – a somewhat larger rocket launcher that will be capable of deport 200 kilograms of payload by 2028 . In accession , Latitude said in a press dismissal that the support will activate the establishment of a new assembly personal line of credit , manufacture the first launcher , additional testing and adding more head count to the 100 - plus soul team .
Latitude ’s existing investors Crédit Mutuel Innovation , Expansion , Bpifrance via DeepTech 2030 , and UI Investissement , as well as Blast.club , Kima Ventures and unnamed private investor , chip in to the rung . The ship’s company has now invoke well-nigh $ 55 million to - date .
line of latitude is part of a growing act of European launch startups looking to boost that continent ’s native launching capability , which has been sorely lacking with on-going delays to next - gen rocket like Arianespace ’s Ariane 6 . Charles Beigbeder , a European VC with Expansion , name this out at once in a statement , saying that “ Europe needs to regain full sovereignty over outer space launcher . ”
The Gallic government has also made its own efforts to patronage a native space diligence – which Latitude is already benefitting from . The country ’s DeepTech 2030 fund get to invest over 50 billion euro to kickstart France ’s deep tech ecosystem .
