Spanish company PLD Space plans to launch one of its rockets for the first time ever today (Oct. 6), and you can watch the action live.
PLD Space’s Miura 1 suborbital rocket is scheduled to lift off today from the El Arenosillo Test Center at the National Institute of Aerospace Technology in Huelva, Spain, during an eight-hour window that opens at 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT on Oct. 7).
You can watch it live here at Space.com when the time comes, courtesy of PLD Space, or directly via the company. Coverage is expected to begin at 7 p.m. EDT (2300 GMT).
Related: European spaceflight companies are racing to be the first to reach orbit
¡Volvemos a intentarlo! 🚀💫MIURA 1 está preparado para su inminente primer vuelo desde la base de lanzamiento en Huelva.T-0 ➡️ Sábado 7 de octubre a las 02:00 CET (00:00 UTC). Encuentra todos los detalles de la misión aquí👉🏼 https://t.co/jEtTUYRMIY#VamosMIURA pic.twitter.com/1FyFLSTfzCOctober 5, 2023
The Miura 1 is a single-stage rocket that stands 41 feet (12.5 meters) tall. It can carry about 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of payload on brief flights to suborbital space.
Miura 1 is carrying a payload on its debut mission — an experiment from the German Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity that will study microgravity conditions during the flight, according to PLD Space.
If all goes according to plan, tonight’s mission will last 12 minutes and get 50 miles (80 kilometers) above Earth’s surface — the altitude at which space begins, according to NASA and the U.S. military. (That’s not universally accepted, however; some organizations go with the Kármán line, which lies 62 miles, or 100 km, up.)
The mission will end with the Miura 1’s splashdown into the Atlantic Ocean, after which it will be recovered for inspection and analysis, according to PLD Space.
The Miura 1 is the first European rocket that’s designed to be recoverable. PLD Space aims to learn a great deal about the vehicle during and after today’s mission, to inform future flights of the Miura 1 and to aid the development of the Miura 5, the company’s planned orbital launcher.
The Miura 5 could launch as soon as 2024 or 2025, if everything goes well. The orbital rocket, which features a reusable first stage, will fly from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
Tonight’s launch won’t be the first attempt for the Miura 1. An initial try on June 17 was aborted 0.2 seconds before liftoff, after ground software determined that one of the cables connecting the rocket to its launch tower hadn’t disconnected in time. PLD Space’s investigation subsequently found that the cable had indeed been released, but 0.1 seconds later than planned.
The Miura 1 liftoff will be one of four space missions today, if all goes according to plan. Also on the docket today are a flight of Arianespace’s Vega small-satellite launcher, Virgin Galactic’s fourth commercial space tourism flight and the launch of Amazon’s first two prototype internet satellites, which will fly atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
