Teruel Airport signs a protocol with PLD Space so that the MIURA 5 rocket carries the Aragonese seal

The president of the Government of Aragon, Jorge Azcón, the president of the Teruel Airport Consortium, Octavio López, and the executive president of PLD Space, Ezequiel Sánchez, signed a protocol this morning that contemplates the future expansion of the facilities of the Elche company dedicated to the manufacture of rockets for space missions. 

"I am absolutely convinced that we have a bright future in this area and that this protocol will be an example of collaboration between the different institutions and a paradigm of public collaboration." "private," explained the president after signing the protocol, when he underlined the "wealth and creation of jobs" that actions like this entail.

The Consortium, Azcón assured, "thinks big" and the actions planned and linked to PIGA It will mean, among other issues, the "implementation of extraordinarily interesting projects" that will allow the infrastructure to grow to 5.5 million square meters and accommodate 300 airplanes, while today there is room for "180 airplanes." and 450 workers."

Likewise, the Teruel airport "will double the number of jobs in the next four years, from the current 450 workers to 900 direct jobs and 1,800 indirect jobs in the next four years," he said. explained the president and then pointed out that, if "the numbers that Teruel Airport produces today are spectacular, those that are advancing us for the future are absolutely incredible." 

As Azcón has pointed out about Teruel Airport, one of the "most emblematic projects in Aragon and the most important airport with industrial use not only in Spain, but in Europe", it is a "hub of excellence" with the "most avant-garde projects in the aeronautical industry, an approach directed towards innovation and sustainability."

In this sense, Azcón has valued the educational promotion that this area has generated in Teruel, where the Department of Education of the Government of Aragon has promoted different educational options in recent years, such as "a cycle of Higher Degree Vocational Training in Aeronautical Maintenance at the Segundo de Chomón Secondary Education Institute" to which is added the incorporation of subjects related to this space field by the University of Zaragoza.

"It is an infrastructure of which we are especially proud, both for what it means right now, but above all for what it will mean in the future," said the president.

NEW FACILITIES

In addition to the expansion of the technical infrastructure that the company plans to carry out in the coming years, the protocol signed today includes a series of facilities for generic use, such as:

1) A 5,000 square meter hangar for the integration and maintenance of the launcher and the existing test benches, which will have a storage area, rooms for cleaning elements in contact with liquid oxygen, assembly and maintenance rooms for aviation electronic elements.

2) Offices of 1,300 meters squares distributed over two floors where the personnel who operate and maintain the test benches will be housed, with open spaces, meeting rooms and a small office with a dining room.

3) Access control booth with a small parking lot for waiting for visitor vehicles.

4) Development of roads between the offices, the hangar and access control, as well as access from the road and the connection to existing roads previously built by PLD Space.

5) Perimeter fencing of the facilities that includes a interior perimeter path that allows the condition of the fence to be inspected.

6) Perimeter fencing for the segregation of the air zone that includes separate paths on each side of the fence to allow perimeter surveillance control.

AEROSPACE REFERENCE

The protocol signed today is due to the commitment of the Government of Aragon and the Teruel City Council (administrations that make up the Consortium) for this airport, which has become a national and international industrial reference in activities such as recycling, repair and maintenance of aircraft. 

But, above all, it delves into the idea of providing this publicly owned airport with an activity, aerospace, very relevant in R&D&I and intensive in capital, acting as an engine of innovation for the economy, with a great capacity for generation of knowledge and mobilization of resources in the field of cutting-edge innovation. A strategic line with a notable capacity to generate highly qualified, stable and quality employment that produces, in turn, a knock-on effect in the form of indirect employment. 

For all these reasons, the implementation, consolidation and development of aerospace activities in Teruel Airport is one of the strategic development measures in the innovation sector for the future growth of the airport platform.

MIURA 5: LIKE AN 11-STORY BUILDING

The expansion included in the protocol signed today is aimed at the development of MIURA 5, a reusable private orbital launcher whose height is equivalent to that of an 11-story building and with the capacity to launch loads of up to one ton . In its first version it measures 35.7 meters and two in diameter, with 5 rocket motors in one stage and another in another stage. 

Currently, the PLD Space facilities at the Teruel airport total 154,810 square meters, but to undertake the entire MIURA 5 trials, the company has planned a final expansion phase that plans to have a total area of 961,709 square meters by the end of 2024.

PLD SPACE: 10 YEARS IN TERUEL 

Teruel Airport opted to have PLD Space in its facilities in 2014, when it was still a project. After more than 10 years, this Elche-based company has become a benchmark in the aerospace sector, locating the MIURA 1 test bench in Teruel and the MIURA 5 test bench in the construction phase.

On October 7 In 2023, PLD Space successfully launched the MIURA 1 rocket, tested at the Teruel airport, thus becoming the first private rocket developed in Europe that has been launched into space. After this first great success, PLD Space's roadmap contemplates the first launch of MIURA 5 by the end of 2025 from Kourou (French Guiana). The start of the company's commercial activity is expected in 2026 with the ultimate goal of exceeding 30 annual launches in 2030.