German startup ATMOS Space Cargo and Luxembourg-based Space Cargo Unlimited (SCU) have announced plans to launch their first collaborative orbital reentry mission in 2026, marking a key step toward building a European in-space manufacturing and research capability.<\/p>\n
The mission \u2014 the first of seven planned free-flying orbital research flights \u2014 will see ATMOS\u2019 Phoenix 2 reentry vehicle carry SCU\u2019s BentoBox microgravity platform into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare. The BentoBox system will enable customers to conduct experiments and manufacturing processes in microgravity, with ATMOS providing communications and ground segment support.<\/p>\n
After several weeks in orbit, Phoenix 2 will reenter Earth\u2019s atmosphere using its inflatable atmospheric decelerator, a novel heat-shield technology that protects payloads and slows the vehicle during descent. Unlike the company\u2019s Phoenix 1 mission, which landed off the coast of Brazil after a last-minute trajectory change, Phoenix 2 is expected to splash down near the Azores, where ATMOS will attempt its first water recovery.<\/p>\n
The partnership aims to give European industry and research organizations sovereign access to space-based manufacturing, reducing reliance on international partners as the International Space Station (ISS) nears retirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to make microgravity manufacturing as routine and accessible as terrestrial production, strengthening Europe\u2019s sovereign access to and from orbit in the post-ISS era,\u201d said ATMOS CEO Sebastian Klaus.<\/p>\n
ATMOS and SCU plan to use the 2026 mission to validate their commercial in-space logistics model, designed to serve industrial and research clients seeking opportunities in orbital manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and materials science.<\/p>\n
ATMOS is also preparing to scale its Phoenix system, with long-term plans to increase mission cadence to monthly flights and eventually support payloads of up to 25 metric tons, enabling the development of large-scale space factories. Klaus has also indicated that the company may establish a U.S. subsidiary to meet growing demand from the U.S. Department of Defense and commercial space customers.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
German startup ATMOS Space Cargo and Luxembourg-based Space Cargo Unlimited (SCU) have announced plans to launch their first collaborative orbital reentry mission in 2026, marking a key step toward building a European in-space manufacturing and research capability. The mission \u2014 the first of seven planned free-flying orbital research flights \u2014 will see ATMOS\u2019 Phoenix 2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1133,244,7305,7306,7307],"class_list":["post-20763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-atmos-space-cargo","tag-europe","tag-phoenix-2","tag-sebastian-klaus","tag-space-cargo-unlimited"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20763"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}