18/08/2026
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Engineers from the European Space Agency (ESA) and industry partners have completed an intensive concept study for Phoenix 3, a reusable spacecraft designed to fly experiments in microgravity and return them safely to Earth.
Earlier this year, ESA’s Concurrent Design Facility (CDF) turned into a multidisciplinary think-tank to evaluate the feasibility of Phoenix 3, a fully European reusable orbital return vehicle proposed by the European startup ATMOS Space Cargo.
Located at ESTEC, ESA’s technical centre in the Netherlands, the CDF is a facility equipped with a network of computers, multimedia devices and software tools. Here, in a matter of a few weeks rather than several months, experts from diverse engineering disciplines join forces and share their expertise to assess the most complex designs imaginable.
During this study, experts reviewed the Phoenix-3 concept using a set of established templates and guidelines, and identified the main trade-offs as a foundation for further investigation. ATMOS now has a first concept and a clear set of design drivers for a spacecraft with the intent to carry experiments to orbit and bring them back on the ground.
To assess a proposed concept, the experts work with reference scenarios: “For this study, we focused on a scenario where Phoenix 3 would be launched into low Earth orbit, to an altitude of around 350 km,” explains Enrico Tormena, ESA’s lead for the study.
“There, it would support commercial microgravity manufacturing, science experiments and in-orbit demonstration and validation of new technologies. After several months to one year in orbit, it would perform a controlled deorbit and atmospheric entry before being recovered, refurbished and prepared for a new launch.”
The configuration assessed during the CDF study includes a service module that supplies Phoenix 3 with power and propulsion, and a pressurised cabin area recreating Earth-like atmosphere able to accommodate over 1000 kg of scientific and commercial payloads. This configuration serves as a reference for the study; it is not set in stone, and leaves key trade-offs open for Phase A – the second step in a mission’s life cycle.
Central to ATMOS’s approach is an inflatable decelerator – a technology the company is maturing and flight-testing across the Phoenix family.
Jeffrey Hendrikse, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of ATMOS Space Cargo, describes how this shapes a crucial part of the spacecraft’s journey: “During reentry, the spacecraft uses its Inflatable Atmospheric Decelerator to slow down through the atmosphere ahead of a safe recovery. What pleases me most is that the study confirmed we can maintain the modularity of the microgravity platform, serving our customers from late access before launch to early access after return, as well as the communication bandwidth they need in orbit.”
“The CDF study also identified key trade-offs and risks to be addressed next, providing a solid starting point for Phase A, in which ATMOS will focus on the optimisation of aerodynamics, stability and thermal design, and on improving entry modelling and guidance to increase landing accuracy,” adds Daniela Lomanto from ESA’s Concurrent Engineering and Future Missions section.
ESA’s support of the Phoenix 3 study is in line with the agency’s core mandate: to boost and accelerate the competitiveness of European industry by providing technical support exactly when and where it is needed.
Ilaria Roma, Head of the CDF, notes: “ATMOS has created a win-win scenario for the future of European space exploration, so their vision and this specific mission assessment is supported by ESA’s Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration.
“Central to this collaboration is the topic of sustainability. By defining a new, scalable class of reusable return vehicles, the study addresses the urgent need for circularity in orbit and reduced environmental footprint in space operations. At the same time, ATMOS is developing concepts and solutions that will directly benefit industrialisation capabilities and sovereign infrastructure within Europe.”
“The value of the CDF is the ability to examine every major subsystem and interface at the same time,” says Marta Oliveira, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of ATMOS Space Cargo. “Bringing specialists from across disciplines into one concurrent process helped us identify dependencies that would be difficult to resolve through sequential engineering work.”
Partnerships like the Phoenix 3 CDF study are made possible through the Third Party Activity initiative, which opens ESA’s consultancy and testing infrastructure to the entire industrial ecosystem, from startups to large-scale enterprises.