Experimental Themis rocket stage nears its first hop

The European demonstrator of the reusable rocket stage Themis conducted a flight chronology rehearsal at Esrange Space Center in Sweden. The ArianeGroup and it's Swedish partner SSC Space teams have reached a major milestone in preparing for Europe’s first flight test with recovery, known as the Hop Test. 

Each milestone brings ArianeGroup closer to its goal of giving Europe sovereign capabilities in reusable space technologies.

The objective of the test was to simulate launch operations under cryogenic conditions, including pre-flight preparation of the demonstrator and its launch pad, as well as the system passivation that will be carried out after post-flight recovery.

The test campaign in the scope of the EU-funded project SALTO follows a test-and-learn approach. It relies on successive demonstrations to develop and mature the technologies required for reusability. Each milestone marks further progress towards reusable launch technologies in Europe.