Moon to Mars | Your Way to Space | moontomars.space

We check what Europe’s launch firms and the spaceports they use promised against what they flew, and who paid for it.

7 in 2026

orbital launches from Europe’s spaceports so far (8 in all of 2025)

~240

orbital launches worldwide this year, so Europe flies about 3 in every 100

23 days

since the last European launch: Vega C, Sentinel-3C, 15 Sep

1 of 8

new European launch firms we follow has reached orbit (Isar, 5 Sep 2026)

as of 8 Oct 2026

From the launch dates promised by companies, governments and agencies, as recorded on our pages. Only promises whose date has passed are shown.

More dated promises on our On this day page »

Next launches from Europe

Launches with a date in the Launch Library feed. We leave out entries the feed has not updated for three months.

Oct 2026Ariane 64, Amazon Leo LE-04Kourou · would be the 5th Ariane 6 flight this yearmonth only

Nov 2026Ariane 62, Metop-SG B1Kouroumonth only

Announced by the companies

Dates the companies gave us or the press. Not yet in the launch feed.

no dateIsar Spectrum, flight 3Andøya · rockets 3 to 7 are in productionno date given

no dateRFA One, first flightSaxaVord · the August 2026 window was droppedfirst set for end 2021

Spring 2027HyImpulse SR75, next suborbital flightSaxaVord · UK licence granted 28 Sep 2026company target

H1 2027PLD Space MIURA 5, first flightKouroufirst set for 2020

H2 2027MaiaSpace Maia, first flightKouroufirst set for end 2025

Last results: Vega C, 15 Sep success · Spectrum, 5 Sep orbit · Ariane 62, 27 Aug success

Promised vs delivered

First flight: the earliest date each rocket was promised for, and what happened.

earliest promisereached orbitcurrent targetopen arrow: no date, or stopped

As of 7 Oct 2026. Sources and details on each company page and in our 2026 ranking.

Public money per orbit reached

Public money a rocket has received or been granted, divided by the number of its flights that reached orbit. Money set aside for flights that have not happened yet is shown apart. Figures as of 8 October 2026.

€293m

to European launch firms that have never reached orbit, plus €346m in contracts for future launches

€513m

Ariane 6, per flight to orbit, nine flights since July 2024

€87m

Vega C, per flight to orbit, seven of them

€67m

Isar Aerospace, one orbit, 5 September 2026

Rockets that have reached orbit

Ariane 62015 contracts and the 2019 and 2022 ESA subscriptions

€513m · 9 orbits

H3Japan; development money, all public

€153m · 7 orbits

Vega Cmoney for Vega C itself, to the 2022 subscriptions

€87m · 7 orbits

Isar AerospaceLauncher Challenge contract not counted

€67m · 1 orbit

For scale: Falcon 9 cost €268m to develop and has reached orbit 678 times, €0.4m of development money per orbit. Part of that money was public: NASA paid USD 396m under its COTS programme for Falcon 9 and the Dragon capsule together, and no split for the rocket alone exists.

How we count

Public money is money from the state: grants, awards, state loans and public development contracts. Equity from state-owned funds sits with the shareholder money and is not counted here. No agency publishes what it has paid out to date, so these are sums granted or signed, not payments.

Money for future flights is left out of the per-orbit figures: the European Launcher Challenge contracts of 27 August 2026, which pay against launches (Isar Aerospace €197.8m, Rocket Factory Augsburg €186.9m, PLD Space €158.9m), and ESA support for Ariane 6 and Vega C flights still to come.

H3 is Japan’s state rocket; its JPY 190bn development was all public (JAXA, 2018). Converted at the ECB rate of 8 October 2026.

An orbit is a flight that reached orbit, from Jonathan McDowell’s launch log, 7 October 2026.

Ariane 6: €4,618m from the 2015 development and pad contracts and the ESA subscriptions of 2019 and 2022. The 2025 subscription adds €1,952m, mostly for flights from 2026 to 2028. With it, the figure would be €730m per flight. The sums are in the prices of the year each was agreed.

Vega C: €87m per flight counts the 2015 development contract and the Vega C lines of the 2019 and 2022 subscriptions. On the development contract alone it is €58m; with ESA’s support for running the rocket it is €112m.

Sources: ESA contracts and subscription documents; company accounts and the German lobby register; the Orbex administrators’ proposals; Swedish government bills and SSC reports; Jonathan McDowell’s GCAT launch log. Every figure is on the page it comes from.

All firms, the full chart and our sources »

“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled”
Richard Feynman

Explore our data

All countries »

What changed

8 OctNew: Santa Maria Spaceport and Ariane 6: promised vs delivered.

8 OctNew: Kourou. Our 2026 ranking replaces the 2024 Top 10.

7 OctNew: MaiaSpace, Esrange and the Launcher Challenge.

Explore our interactive and expanding map of European New Space

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48 places in Europe, French Guiana and Oman: companies, spaceports and agencies. Find what is near you, switch EN/DE, and open our reviews.

Open the European Space Map

Most recent articles and reviews of European NewSpace companies

Sirius Space ServicesOctober 9, 2026
Sirius Space Services, a French small-rocket start-up founded in 2020, has not flown as of October 2026. It holds a France 2030 contract and a pad slot in Kourou, but has announced no funding round, files confidential accounts and has moved its first flight from March 2025 to the end of 2027 or 2028.
Middle East launch and EuropeOctober 9, 2026
European rockets launched most of the Middle East’s large satellites until 2019. Since 2020 Europe still builds them, SpaceX launches them, and three European launch firms have signed with Oman’s Etlaq spaceport.
Vega C and AvioOctober 8, 2026
Vega C was ordered in 2014 to fly in 2018 and first flew in July 2022. Eight flights, one failure, 715 days on the ground, EUR 87.4 million of public money per successful flight and never more than three launches a year. How Avio and its rocket compare with Electron, Falcon 9 rideshare and China’s small rockets.
Santa Maria SpaceportOctober 8, 2026
Santa Maria in the Azores holds Portugal’s only launch site licence. We look at who runs it, what has flown, who paid and what was promised since 2018.
Ariane 6October 8, 2026
Ariane 6 was ordered in 2014 to fly in 2020 and first flew in July 2024. Nine flights, about EUR 6.6 billion of public commitments, up to EUR 340 million a year in operating support, no published price and no reuse. How it compares with Falcon 9, Vulcan, H3 and China’s rockets.