The Exploration Company was founded in 2021 with the lofty goal of democratizing space exploration. However, unlike the billionaire space barons who are charging north of €400,000 for a short zero-gravity joyride, this European startup aims to offer long-duration access to space for research and commercial partners at a fraction of current costs.
The company
The Exploration Company has locations in both France and Germany. Across both locations, the startup employs more than 15 people. This fledgling staff complement represents decades of experience in the industry working for Airbus, ArianeGroup, NASA, CNES, Avio, and more.
According to the French Registre du commerce et des sociétés (Trade and companies register), The Exploration Company’s French arm was formed in June 2021 and is appropriately located at 1 Niel Armstrong Avenue in Merignac, which is close to Bordeaux.
The German arm of The Exploration Company was registered with the Handelsregister (German Commercial Register) in July 2021 and is located at the address of the European Space Agency Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC) in Gilching.
The primary goal of ESA BICs is to assist entrepreneurs and startups with turning their disruptive ideas and inventions into successful businesses. ESA BIC Germany alumnus include Isar Aerospace and OroraTech.
In addition to being part of the ESA BIC program, The Exploration Company was selected to be part of the inaugural class of the CNES Tech the Moon incubator program. The program is touted as being the world’s first incubator dedicated to startups developing products or services related to the lunar economy. It was launched in 2021 and is expected to foster five companies every year.
Funding
As an indication of how much they believe in the company’s goals, the initial team and many of its advisors put up €1.5 million in funding to get the company off the ground.
This initial funding has since been followed by an oversubscribed €5.3 million seed round which was closed in November 2021. The round was led by Promus Ventures and included Cherry Ventures and Vsquared.
Speaking to European Spaceflight, The Exploration Company CEO Hélène Huby explained that the funding would be used to hire additional engineers, test a cryogenic engine for a lunar vehicle, and complete a small demonstrator capsule that is expected to launch aboard the maiden Ariane 6 flight later this year.
Dubbed the Bikini Demo, the demonstration capsule has a mass of approximately 20kgs and will be utilised to test thermal models. The capsule is one of eleven payloads that secured spots aboard the maiden flight of Ariane 6. According to ESA, the 800kgs worth of payloads will be hosted on a ‘mass dummy’ that will be launched aboard an Ariane 62 equipped with a 14-meter fairing.
The vehicle
The Exploration Company is developing a modular reusable spacecraft dubbed Nyx, which is named after the Greek Goddess of the night. The modularity and reusability of the vehicle are all in service of ensuring that the spacecraft will be adaptable and cost-effective.
Once operational, the initial iteration of Nyx is designed to be capable of carrying up to 4,000kgs into low Earth orbit for up to 6 months. This includes 2,500kgs of pressurized cargo and 100kgs of unpressurized cargo aboard the capsule that will be returned to Earth. The vehicle’s service module will be capable of carrying 1,400kgs of unpressurized cargo.
In order to ensure maximum mission flexibility, the spacecraft will be launch vehicle agnostic. Huby explained that the company is exploring a number of launch vehicles including Ariane 6, Falcon 9, and even Starship.
The initial demonstration mission is expected to be launched in September 2024. This will then be followed by a 2026 maiden flight. The two-year gap is necessary to ensure that lessons learned from the demonstration flight can be used to optimize and improve the vehicle.
After entering operational service, The Exploration Company then hopes to shift its focus to the Moon. The company is currently targeting a 2028 launch date for its first mission to the Moon.
Once operational, the Nyx Moon is envisioned to be capable of not only landing on the lunar surface but also completing point-point hops of between 50 to 100kms at a time. This would enable a lander to explore multiple locations over a single mission.
The customers
Currently, The Exploration Company is marketing its service to a wide array of customers with applications ranging from demonstration missions and microgravity experiments to in-orbit manufacturing and entertainment uses like product placements.
Customers are already able to secure pre-bookings for a Nyx flight from the company’s website. This pre-booking is finalized with a letter of intent. However, a launch contract confirming each payload’s place on a flight will not be signed until the first quarter of next year.
According to Huby, the company hopes to utilise the pre-booking process to tailor its offering to its customers.
The cost
In order to democratize access to space, The Exploration Company aims to offer space aboard Nyx vehicles at €15k per kg, or about 15% of what it would cost aboard the International Space Station. However, the initial demo flight promises to be even more affordable. According to the company’s pre-booking webpage, spots aboard this initial mission will cost as little as €1,500 per kg. This demo mission will have space for approximately 300kgs of payload.
Once The Exploration Company conquers low Earth orbit and pushes to the Moon in 2028, spots aboard a lunar mission will cost in the range of €300k per kg, which is a fraction of what it currently costs if you can even get someone to agree to carry your payload. The company is currently not taking pre-bookings for its Nyx Moon missions.
The verdict
To say that The Exploration Company’s mission is ambitious would be an understatement. They are planning to achieve a level of cost and flexibility that does not exist today with a fraction of the funding that a US-based startup would be able to garner through public and private funding. However, we think they are well-positioned to deliver on their goal.
Leadership is paramount for a startup hoping to disrupt an industry and The Exploration Company is well-equipped on that front. Hélène Huby has almost a decade of experience in the industry working at Airbus, ArianeGroup, and, most recently, space debris mitigation startup ClearSpace. During her time at Airbus from 2018 to 2021, Huby served as the Vice President of the Orion European Service Module team working on a key component of the spacecraft that will carry astronauts back to the Moon for the first time since the end of the Apollo program. Along with her management team, each of whom has a background as distinguished as Huby’s, The Exploration Company’s leadership seems well-equipped to deliver on the startup’s ambitious goals.
After leadership, funding is often the most crucial part of any startup. Although the company has only raised €6.8 million, it is important to remember that it has managed to do so despite being less than a year old. Additionally, with their initial seed round being oversubscribed, it is clear that there is no shortage of interest in the company from investors.
The final element of a successful startup is its ability to attract customers. According to Huby, despite the early stages of development several customers have signed letters of intent showing interest in being part of a Nyx mission. Additionally, with the International Space Station’s decommissioning set to occur within the next ten years, Europe and many others will be looking for an alternative to conduct microgravity research. Although there are options on their way to operational service like the ESA Space Rider program, Nyx promises to be far more capable, flexible and affordable.
All in all, The Exploration Company looks to be one that you’ll want to keep an eye on over the next few years.
