Johannesburg – The Exploration Company, a space transportation company based in Germany, established the United States-based entity TEC Federal, which will enable it to compete for government programs and contracts. The company also opened the doors to its new Rapid Innovation Lab in Houston, Texas.
In a July 8 press release, the company said that the new facility and the Houston lab together will provide the company with engineering and testing capabilities needed for U.S. government contracts.
A company spokesperson said, “From our perspective, this is about meeting the growing and global demand for both cargo and crew capabilities, as both space agencies and CLDs prepare for a human presence in LEO following the planned retirement of the ISS.”
The laboratory, located near NASA’s Johnson Space Center, includes a full-scale mockup of a planned crew version of Nix, the exploration company’s in-development reusable spacecraft, the company said. That mockup will be used to further develop Nix’s Crew interface.
“Houston gives us direct access to the people and expertise that have built and operated human spaceflight systems for decades,” Helen Huby, chief executive of The Exploration Company, said in the press release. “We are excited to invest and expand around this – engineers, operators and astronauts working together and moving forward rapidly toward building a crew capsule.”
The exploration company is working toward a 2028 orbital flight test of a cargo version of its Nix capsule. The mission is expected to carry cargo to the International Space Station, with its initial development funded through the European Space Agency’s LEO Cargo Return Initiative.
The company, together with Thales Alenia Space, received 25 million euros ($28.6 million) for the first phase of the program’s development. ESA is now close to deciding on Phase 2, which could provide the exploration company an additional 200 million euros to complete the demonstration mission.
With its Houston expansion, the exploration company has positioned itself closer to NASA and a larger pool of government funding for human space flight as it considers how to finance the development of a crewed version of Nix.
