🔥 Our 2026 Latitude update:
- 🚀 Still no flight. Company homepage: First launch 2027. After SaxaVord plans and a 2025 Kourou / Diamant commitment, Latitude and Etlaq signed a letter of intent on 1 July 2026 for a framework toward an experimental inaugural in late 2027. Company statement (via European Spaceflight): detailed agreements still to follow, including export control; Oman funding/ownership not disclosed; Oman = complement to CSG. We’d treat late 2027 as optimistic until metal is on a licensed pad. Kourou: CNES ~EUR 50 million shared ELM works; Latitude says > EUR 8 million of its own money on dedicated kit.
- 💰 Series B EUR 27 million (January 2024); company total about EUR 50 million. Not on ESA’s European Launcher Challenge shortlist (7 July 2025 — Isar, MaiaSpace, Orbex, PLD, RFA). Première Usine factory support (Apr 2025) plus filed RDI/PME aides; CNES micro/mini-lancement laureate (Apr 2024) without a published contract total.
- 🏗 New Reims plant ~25,000 m², move-in talk H2 2026. Titan test site at Vatry is firing Navier hardware.
- 👥 INSEE band 50–99 (2024); company site 160. Register capital EUR 10,032.80 (31 August 2026). Président Maximin; CEO Philippe Trillat since 4 August 2026 (after Aurélie Bressollette’s Nov 2024–Aug 2026 turn).
- 🛰 Vehicle formerly Zephyr — name dropped. Company specs now point to about 200 kg LEO / 300 kg SSO; engine layout in 2023–25 materials is 7 + 1 Navier, not the old nine-plus-one.
The pad moved twice
In 2023 we wrote SaxaVord and Q4/2024. That date died quietly (no public SaxaVord termination notice turned up — the maiden simply moved). In June 2025 Latitude put its own money against ELM Diamant at Kourou and talked 2026. On 1 July 2026 the maiden story shifted again: a letter of intent with Etlaq in Oman for a late-2027 experimental launch. Latitude’s own spokesperson called it a cooperation framework with detailed agreements — and export-control compliance — still ahead. Etlaq’s Genesis site has flown suborbital campaigns since Duqm-1 (December 2024); the permanent orbital complex is still aimed at end-2027. PLD and HyImpulse have Etlaq paper too. Letters of intent are not pad licences.
Our view: we’d treat late 2027 as optimistic — non-binding LoI, undisclosed Oman funding, orbital infra still under construction, elevated Gulf / Hormuz war-risk logistics in 2026, and French dual-use export licensing still to clear. Believe the date when hardware is on a licensed pad. CNES’s shared Kourou cheque is still not Latitude’s >EUR 8 million specific spend.
Money without the ELC cheque
The January 2024 Series B (EUR 27 million, Crédit Mutuel Innovation investor PR) is the last clean private headline. France 2030 factory support is real; the exact Première Usine headline euro is murkier in press, clearer as filed aide lines. What Latitude did not get is an ESA European Launcher Challenge slot: the 7 July 2025 shortlist was Isar, MaiaSpace, Orbex, PLD and RFA. Maximin told Payload the company did not need it. Fine. By October 2026 Isar has orbited, and PLD/RFA hold nine-figure ELC contracts. Latitude’s ~EUR 50 million stack is a real French raise in a different weight class — the same “outside ELC” neighbourhood as HyImpulse, which at least has a 2024 suborbital flight on the board.
We still refuse a single Series B valuation. The January 2024 capital jump is visible at EUR 0.10 nominal only. Without the issue price, the napkin stays in the drawer.
Specs, name, leadership
Marketing dropped Zephyr; the industry will keep saying it. Payload and length figures on the company launcher page are higher than the 100 kg / ~19 m set we printed in 2023. Engine counts in press moved from nine-plus-one to seven-plus-one. We date each figure.
In the corner office: Maximin remains Président. Bressollette ran day-to-day from November 2024; Trillat took CEO on 4 August 2026 (company LinkedIn and site; Bressollette’s exact exit date is not public). Saidi-Bekerman left the DG seat in May 2026.
What’s next
Hot-fire work at Titan continues. Factory fit-out in Reims is the industrial bet. The reader question for 2027 is simple: does an Oman experimental flight happen on the year printed on the homepage, and does Kourou still matter when the LoI dust settles?
Accounts went dark — and that matters
The last public comptes on BODACC for SIREN 850181918 close FY2021. Everything after is not in the public greffe extract we can read. That is often legal confidentiality for a French PME. It is also why this update leads with announced rounds, filed capital and state-aid notices rather than a fresh P&L.
Customers, claimed
Mid-2025 company talk pointed to dozens of flight reservations and a large euro “pipeline.” We repeat that only as an attributed claim. Until a launch happens, the order book is a sales narrative.
For the fully updated analysis, read the refreshed Latitude review.
All information in this analysis was obtained from public sources and we encourage you to do your own due diligence. Feel free to contact us for corrections or share our content. Attribution is always welcome.
