At the Paris Air Show 2025, ESA announced eight new projects. The projects are under the ESA programme FIRST! for future space transportation (FLPP) in key area “Landing and Recovery Systems and Technologies”. One of the projects is led by 5M s.r.o. in a consortium with L. K. Engineering, s.r.o. and VZLU AEROSPACE. Reusable technology is crucial for the future of space transportation in Europe.
The goal of this project is to tackle a significant part of the relaunching capabilities of launchers, i.e. the landing legs, and de-risk innovative technologies at the same time. The focus will be on the development of new design concepts of primary struts for landing legs to reduce their weight and cost by implementation of innovative design and/or thermoplastic composites.
VZLU AEROSPACE has a heritage with the design, analyses, manufacturing, and testing of composites and the analysis and manufacturing of thermoplastic composites, which will be heavily needed in this type of project. VZLU’s involvement will ensure the relevance of tested breadboards and the innovative nature of the proposed landing legs design.
Photo Credit: ESA COMMERIALISATION GATEWAY
