European Space Agency’s (ESA) Director of Space Transportation Toni Tolker-Nielsen (left) and Avio’s Chief Commercial Officer and Launch Services Director Marino Fragnito sign a contract for a reuseable upper stage demonstration mission at the International Aeronautical Congress in Sydney, Australia, 29 September 2025. On the right is ESA’s Chief Technical Advisor for Space Transportation Giorgio Tumino.
ESA’s Director of Space Transportation Toni Tolker-Nielsen explained, “I am glad to sign this contract since its importance is two-fold: on one side it addresses technological criticalities in the short-term, on the other side it paves the way for the preparation of Europe’s long-term future in space.”
“The objective and content of the activities are the result of a joint harmonisation work made together with Avio to maximise the technology return on ESA and national investments,” said ESA’s Chief Technical Advisor for Space Transportation Giorgio Tumino, “we are capitalising on progress made in advanced liquid propulsion, reentry, recoverability and reusability technologies, complementing ongoing efforts to de-risk demonstrations of reusable lower stages, supporting different possible scenarios, including evolutions of the Vega family of rockets as well as other newly-defined fully-reusable launch systems in Europe.”
Chief Executive Officer at Avio, Giulio Ranzo, said, “We are excited to work on the reusable upper stage, leveraging on our parallel experiences in liquid oxygen-methane engines and stages as well as on the Space Rider reentry vehicle. We aim to create an advanced, light-weight, performance-efficient solution for our next-generation launchers to serve customers with higher flight rates and competitive costs.”