The first model of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) reusable rocket demonstrator Themis standing on its launch pad in Kiruna, Sweden,
Themis is investigating technologies to demonstrate rocket stage recovery and reuse. The first vehicle model – called T1H for Themis-1 engine-Hop – arrived at the Esrange Space Center in July 2025, with its landing legs shipped separately. The legs are now installed, and T1H is standing tall.
Themis is set to be the first European demonstration of a full-scale vertical take-off and landing rocket element that uses cryogenic propulsion.
T1H is 30 m tall standing on its legs and 3.5 m wide, holding the necessary technologies for the low-altitude take-off and landing tests it is set to perform. Themis uses the Prometheus engine, almost as powerful as the Ariane 6 rocket’s main engine – but Prometheus can restart in flight and throttle its thrust to ensure a soft and safe landing.
Themis was transported by truck over 3000 km from the ArianeGroup integration building in Les Mureaux, France, to the Swedish Space Corporation’s Esrange Space Center in the north of Sweden.
Themis, the first European reusable main stage’s full-scale demonstrator, was developed by ESA’s future Space Transportation preparation programme, with ArianeGroup as prime contractor and multiple European industrial partners. Themis’s first flight campaign with T1H, will be realised in the scope of Horizon Europe project Salto, funded by the European Union. The Salto project is responding to the EU Space Research and Innovation Programme and implemented by the European Commission under direct management.