Dassault Aviation has signed agreements with the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and the European Space Agency to develop a new spaceplane called VORTEX.
During the Paris Air Show last week, French military and civil aviation manufacturer Dassault Aviation revealed plans for its VORTEX spaceplane, short for Véhicule Orbital Réutilisable de Transport et d’Exploration (Reusable Orbital Transport and Exploration Vehicle). According to the company, the vehicle would be used to transport cargo to and from space stations and to carry out a “range of in-orbit services.” Dassault has also stated that VORTEX could be used for defence applications.
The development of the spaceplane will follow an iterative approach, beginning with VORTEX-D, a 1:3 scale demonstrator. This will be followed by VORTEX-S, a 2:3 scale “smart free flyer,” and then VORTEX-C, the first full-scale variant, which would be capable of transporting cargo to and from space stations in low Earth orbit. A crewed upgrade to VORTEX-C, known as VORTEX-M, has also been proposed.
On 20 June, Dassault announced that the programme will be supported by both the French Ministry of the Armed Forces and the European Space Agency (ESA).
The company’s agreement with the French military includes direct support for the development of the VORTEX-D demonstrator. However, the announcement did not specify the scale or nature of that support. The agreement with ESA was less concrete. According to the 20 June press release, the two parties signed a letter of intent aimed at “developing a closer relationship to jointly foster technology development in areas such as LEO destinations, and particularly around orbital vehicles.”
ESA is already supporting the development of two vehicles designed to carry cargo to and from low Earth orbit through Phase 1 of its LEO Cargo Return Services initiative. In May 2024, the agency awarded Phase 1 contracts to The Exploration Company and Thales Alenia Space Italia, with each company receiving €25 million to continue development of their respective vehicles. The launch of Phase 2 will depend on decisions made at the ESA Ministerial-Level Council meeting at the end of the year. With its budding relationship with Dassault, ESA may look to include VORTEX in Phase 2 of the initiative, although this remains purely speculative.
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Hermes reborn !
Bravo !
Exactly my thought, though I couldn’t quite remember the vehicle out of the proposed vehicles from Europe it reminded me of.
And the company that was the true custodian of the Hermes legacy, Reaction Engines, just went bankrupt…
Truly sad, that.
Hopefully this fares better.
If the US is going to abandon space, GO Europe!
A step in the right direction.
With the UK ,it would appear, out out of the spaceplane business . France can pick up the torch it dropped.