ESA awards €760M contract to startup for first European commercial ISS cargo capsule

The European Space Agency has awarded The Exploration Company a €760 million contract to build and fly Europe's first commercial cargo capsule to the International Space Station. The deal, signed at the International Space Summit in Paris, marks the largest capsule transportation contract ESA has awarded to a European company in open competition. It gives Europe an independent cargo capability to low Earth orbit, reducing reliance on US and Russian systems.

Bottom line — The €760M contract makes five-year-old startup The Exploration Company Europe's anchor for independent ISS cargo access.

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• The contract covers an initial Nyx demonstration mission (€310M) and options for two further service missions (€450M), per ESA.
• The demonstration mission must dock with the ISS no later than Q2 2029, before the station's planned retirement, according to European Spaceflight.
• TEC secured 40% of the demo mission financing from private investors; ESA covers the remaining 60%, the agency said.
• The award comes days after TEC closed a €387 million ($450M) Series C round, per the company.
• TEC has pre-booking agreements for 10 Nyx missions with commercial station operators Axiom, Starlab, and Vast, worth roughly €1.7 billion ($2B), the company said.
• "It is the first time in Europe that a five-year-old space startup wins a contract worth hundreds of millions of euros in open competition," said CEO Hélène Huby.
• The Nyx capsule will launch on an Ariane 6 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, under a separate agreement with Arianespace.
• ESA is continuing a second-stage tendering process with Thales Alenia Space to maintain competition, per the agency.

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