European Newspace Vertical Orbital Launcher

ENVOL is a project involving 9 European commercial companies from 7 different countries and coordinated by Nammo Raufoss in Norway to answer the need for autonomous, reliable and cost-affective access to space for Europe, as part of the Horizon 2020 call SPACE-17-TEC-2019. This call is asking for innovative concepts for low cost launch system and services for mini-, micro-, nanosatellites and cubesats. ENVOL will develop such a novel and commercial launch system for satellites up to 200 kg, capable of up to 20 launches per year. Such a launch service, to be operated from Andøya Spaceport in Northern Norway, would provide available and affordable access to space to students, researchers, start-ups and businesses, contributing both to scientific progress and economic growth. ENVOL's innovativeness comes from the use of innovative technologies on the launch vehicle (hybrid rocket propulsion using storable and green H2O2 propellant, structural tanks in composite, autonomous avionics), from ground systems enabling modern, flexible and efficient launch operations, and finally from a commercially driven approach in terms of design, development, industrial organization and financing. ENVOL main objective is then to perform a full design definition of the complete launch system (launch vehicle, ground support equipment and payload systems) meeting the commercial feasibility criterion (mission, recurring and non-recurring costs, time-to-market, potential for future evolutions). The most critical R&D challenges to be faced in this project are: system design and engineering of a complete launch system to achieve commercialization targets; technology maturation and demonstration of two key propulsion technologies (H2O2 turbopump, and a structural H2O2 tank in composite) and two key avionics technologies (launcher avionics including autonomous flight safety, and payload avionics focused on automation, modularity and standardization).