Румынская компания ARCAspace: от ракет до астероидной добычи.

Aerospace company headquartered in Romania

Romanian Cosmonautics and Aeronautics Association (Asociația Română pentru Cosmonautică și Aeronautică), also known as ARCAspace, is an aerospace company based in Râmnicu Vâlcea, Romania. It builds rockets, high altitude balloons, and unmanned aerial vehicles. It was founded in 1999 as a non governmental organization in Romania by the Romanian engineer and entrepreneur Dumitru Popescu and other rocket and aeronautics enthusiasts. Since then, ARCA has launched two stratospheric rockets and four large scale stratospheric balloons including a cluster balloon. It was awarded two governmental contracts with the Romanian government and one contract with the European Space Agency. ARCASpace is currently developing a three stage, semi reusable steam powered rocket called EcoRocket and in 2022 has shifted its business model to Asteroid mining.

ARCA was established as Romanian Cosmonautics and Aeronautics Association (Asociația Română pentru Cosmonautică și Aeronautică), a non governmental organization in 1999 by a group of rocket and aeronautics enthusiasts. Their goal was to construct and launch space rockets. After experimenting with designs for different fuels and rocket engine types, including solid fuel rockets, they decided to use fiberglass for engine and tank construction and hydrogen peroxide as fuel. Their first vehicle was named Demonstrator and was a long, unguided, self stabilized rocket. It never flew, instead it was used in various public exhibitions to attract funds and sponsorships. Their second rocket, Demonstrator 2, was constructed in 2003. For this, ARCA created their first rocket engine testing installation where they tested their hydrogen peroxide engine. After the tests were successful, they constructed Demonstrator 2B which was an improved version of their previous rocket. It had a length and diameter and used an high launch pad. In 2003 ARCA also signed up for the Ansari X Prize international competition and started design for the Orizont suborbital vehicle capable of carrying a crew of two up to an altitude of Orizont was to be ARCA's competing vehicle for the Ansari X Prize. It was designed to use a disposable jet engine up to an altitude of and then ignite its main hydrogen peroxide rocket engine in order to propel it to the altitude. On September 9, 2004, ARCA successfully launched the Demonstrator 2B rocket from Cape Midia Air Force Base. Because of powerful wind gusts up to , they were forced to use only 20 percent of the intended fuel quantity in order to keep with the allocated safety zone by the Air Force. The altitude reached was 90 journalists from Romania, Germany, and Austria were present at the launch. After the launch, ARCA started construction of the Orizont spaceplane and completed the aircraft structure by 2005.

ARCA organized a public presentation of their Orizont spaceplane in front of the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest. Because of financial problems encountered with the construction of Orizont, ARCA decided to suspend its development and instead design a new, much smaller rocket called Stabilo. It was designed to be launched from a stratospheric solar balloon and carry one person into space. Design and construction of large scale polyethylene balloons started and on December 2, 2006, at Onesti, Bacau, the crew capsule of Stabilo rocket was lifted to an altitude of 14,700 m. The capsule was safely recovered that evening. The event was transmitted live on several Romanian TV stations. On 27 September 2007, the entire Stabilo rocket (crew capsule + rocket booster) was lifted to an altitude of 12,000 m using the largest solar balloon constructed until that date. The mission was launched from Cape Midia Air Force Base, and the rocket was recovered from the Black Sea surface by Romanian Navy divers. At this moment ARCA proved its ability to conduct large scale operations and to coordinate military institutions like the Romanian Navy and the Romanian Air Force. In 2007 ARCA won two governmental contracts with the Research Ministry for a suborbital rocket and a solar balloon. The Romanian Space Agency, the University of Bucharest and other Romanian institutions were subcontractors to ARCA for these projects. In early 2008 ARCA joined the Google Lunar X Prize competition and designed the Haas orbital launcher. Their lunar rover was named European Lunar Lander and used a monopropellant rocket engine for landing and hovering. Haas was a three stage orbital rocket powered by hybrid engines using a bitumen based fuel and hydrogen peroxide as oxidizer. It was supposed to be launched from 18,000 m carried by the largest solar balloon ever constructed, having a volume of 2 million cubic meters. For the Haas rocket, they created a three stage much smaller demonstrator called Helen that was intended to test technologies and operation. The Helen rocket was intentionally not aerodynamically stabilized, being intended to use a technique based on the pendulum rocket fallacy. The Romanian bank BRD – Groupe Société Générale awarded ARCA a 300,000 euro sponsorship for their activities. Romanian cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu highly praised ARCA's achievements and noted their ability to efficiently utilize private funds. In 2009 ARCA performed a series of engine tests using the Stabilo rocket engine in order to validate the design for the Helen rocket. The first attempt to launch the Helen rocket took place on November 14, 2009. Romanian Naval Forces participated with the NSSL 281 Constanta ship, the Venus divers ship, the Fulgerul fast boat and two other fast craft boats. For this mission, ARCA constructed a massive 150,000 cubic meter solar balloon, approximately five times as large as their previous balloon. After the balloon began inflating, the mission crew discovered that the balloon inflation arms were wrapped around the lower part of the balloon. Inflation was halted and the crew attempted to unwrap the arms. Three hours later the arms were repositioned and inflation was ready to resume but the sun was already nearing the horizon, and heating the solar balloon was no longer possible. The decision was made to cancel the mission.

After the difficulties encountered with the stratospheric balloons, ARCA decided to change their approach to orbital launch for the Google Lunar X Prize. They designed a supersonic rocket plane powered by a liquid fueled rocket engine using kerosene as fuel and liquid oxygen as oxidizer. The aircraft, initially named E 111, was renamed IAR 111 after ARCA received permission from IAR S. A. Brasov to use the traditional IAR designation for military and civilian aircraft constructed since 1925. The aircraft was intended to fly to an altitude of 17.000 m and launch a heavily modified version of the Haas rocket, named Haas 2. Haas 2 was an air launched three stage orbital rocket intended to place a 200 kg payload into orbit. Work on the plane structure began in late 2010. By 2011 all the fiberglass molds for the aircraft were finished and one third of the aircraft structure was completed. The crew capsule escape system was tested on September 26, 2011, when a Mil Mi 17 helicopter belonging to the Special Aviation Unit dropped the capsule from an altitude of 700 m over the Black Sea. The emergency parachute deployed successfully and the capsule was recovered from the sea surface by the Romanian Coast Guard. In 2012 ARCA decided to focus on the construction of the rocket engine of the IAR 111 aircraft. The engine, named Executor, is made of composite materials, has a thrust of 24 tons force (52,000 lbf) and is turbopump fueled. It uses ablative cooling for the main chamber and nozzle where the outer layers of the composite material vaporize in contact with the high temperature exhaust mixture and prevent overheating. ARCA also presented a long term space program, until 2025, that besides IAR 111 envisioned a small scale orbital rocket (Haas 2C), a suborbital crewed rocket (Haas 2B) and a medium scale crewed orbital rocket (Super Haas). In March 2012, ARCA tested an extremely lightweight composite materials kerosene tank that is intended to be used for the Haas 2C rocket. After criticism from the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) intensified in printed media and television, ARCA decided to send a public letter to the Romanian Prime Minister to intervene in this matter. ARCA mentioned that the Romanian Space Agency is in no position to criticize after the failure of their cubesat Goliat recently launched with a Vega rocket. Furthermore, ARCA was privately funded compared with ROSA which uses public funding. In June 2012 ARCA presented their Haas 2C rocket in Victoria Square in Bucharest, in front of the Romanian Government palace. The same year ARCA won a $1,200,000 contract with the European Space Agency to participate in the ExoMars program. Named the High Altitude Drop Test, the contract consisted of a series of stratospheric balloon drop tests to verify the structural integrity of the EDM parachutes used in Martian atmospheric deceleration. On September 16, 2013, ARCA performed the first successful flight in the ExoMars program, lifting three pressurised avionics containers over the Black Sea to an altitude of 24,400 m.
In November, the concrete test stand for the Executor engine was completed.

On February 10 ARCA presented a high altitude uncrewed aerial vehicle, named AirStrato, that was meant to replace stratospheric balloon usage for equipment testing and other near space missions. It was intended to be solar powered for extended endurance, was 7 m in length and had a 16 m wingspan with a takeoff weight of 230 kg. The aircraft first flew on February 28. ARCA announced that if the development was successful they would consider developing a commercial version available for sale to customers. On October 17, 2014, ARCA announced that it had transferred its headquarters to the United States to Las Cruces, New Mexico. In a press release they announced that in Romania activities related to software and rocket engine development will continue. They also announced that Air Strato UAV would be available for purchase to customers and that Las Cruces will also serve as a production center for the aircraft. On November 25 they released a website for the UAV revealing two models available for purchase, AirStrato Explorer that could reach altitudes up to 18,000 m with 20 hours endurance and AirStrato Pioneer that would be limited to 8000 m and 12 hours endurance. On July 13, 2015 ARCA announced the beginning of activities in New Mexico, including production and flight tests of AirStrato UAS and Haas rockets, investing $1.2 million. In November 2017, CEO Dimitru Popescu was arrested and charged with 12 counts of fraud. As a result, he left the country and reestablished operations in Romania. The charges were later dropped. In early 2019, ARCA announced the development of the steam powered Launch Assist System and began testing the aerospike engine.

In 2020, tests of the steam powered aerospike continued and ARCA announced a new launch vehicle, the EcoRocket, derived from the LAS technology. In 2021, the EcoRocket design was altered slightly to a three stage vehicle as tests of the steam powered aerospike continued. In 2022, ARCA announced the AMi Exploration Initiative, effectively pivoting its business model away from the commercial launch sector and towards cryptocurrency and asteroid mining. The AMi program will utilize the AMi Cargo vehicle and EcoRocket Heavy to mine valuable materials from asteroids. Beginning in the late 2020s, the company plans to start a series of asteroid mining missions to return valuable metals (mostly platinum) to Earth for sale. It intends to fund this venture primarily through the sales of the AMi token, an upcoming cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain. Since then, it appears ARCA is shifting its main focus away from AMi, and towards the CER/military related programs.

The Haas rocket family was to be a series of rockets of various sizes and configurations intended to replace the initial Haas balloon launched rocket. After the difficulties encountered with balloon operation in Mission 3 and Mission 4, ARCA decided to redesign the rocket to be ground launched. Although heavier and more expensive, ground launched rockets are more reliable, easier to operate and can carry heavier payloads into orbit.

Haas 2B was to be a single stage suborbital rocket intended for space tourism. It was designed to transport a crew capsule and service module into a suborbital trajectory. The crew capsule and service module would have been the same as the ones used for the larger multi stage Super Haas orbital rocket. At the NASA DC X conference in Alamogordo, New Mexico in August 2013 ARCA presented an updated version of the Haas 2B rocket with a capsule capable of carrying a crew of five into space. There were discussions with Spaceport America representatives to operate the Haas 2B rocket from New Mexico.

Haas 2C was to be an orbital rocket intended for commercial payload launches. There were two planned variants of the rocket, a single stage to orbit variant capable of placing a payload into orbit and a two stage variant capable of lifting a payload into orbit. After testing the extremely lightweight composite tank, ARCA designed a single stage long rocket with a total weight of , having a thrust to weight ratio of 26:1 and a payload.

Haas 2CA was to be a rocket designed to be able to launch 100 kg into a low Earth orbit, at a price of US$1 million per launch. The first flight was intended to launch from Wallops Flight Facility in 2018. The rocket was designed as a Single stage to orbit (SSTO) and featured an Aerospike engine, producing of thrust at sea level and of thrust in vacuum.

Romanian Aeronautical Industry Brașov (Industria Aeronautica Romana Brașov), also known as IAR 111, was a sea launched suborbital rocket plane. It used the same Executor engine as Haas 2B and 2C rockets. It was to have a length of , a wingspan of and a take off mass of It can carry a crew of two, a pilot and a passenger. The flight sequence consists of take off from sea surface, horizontal flight at subsonic speed, followed by a rapid climb to an altitude of in approximately two minutes. As a space tourism development platform, it could reach at After fuel depletion, IAR 111 was to descend in gliding flight and land on the sea surface. In case of emergency, the crew capsule was to be detachable and equipped with two rocket propelled parachutes. The IAR 111 capsule was flight tested during Mission 6. The mission took place in cooperation with the Special Aviation Unit and the Coast Guard, belonging to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration.

AirStrato was an electric powered medium sized unmanned aerial vehicle that was being developed by ARCA. There were two variants planned, the AirStrato Explorer with a target flight ceiling of 18,000 m and AirStrato Pioneer with a target flight ceiling of 8000 m. It was supposed to carry a 45 kg payload consisting of surveillance equipment, scientific instruments, or additional battery pods for extended autonomy. The first prototype's maiden flight took place on February 28, 2014. It was equipped with fixed landing gear. Two more prototypes were constructed that lacked landing gear. Instead, ARCA opted for a pneumatic catapult as a launcher and landing skids and a recovery parachute for landing. Both prototypes only performed take off and landing testing and short low altitude flights.

ARCA has constructed a drop test vehicle for the European Space Agency intended to test the atmospheric deceleration parachutes for the ExoMars EDM lander module. It has the same weight and parachute deployment systems present on the ESA module. The DTV is intended to be lifted to an altitude of 24 km by a stratospheric helium balloon. From that height, it will fall freely reaching a dynamic pressure similar to that encountered by the ExoMars EDM at entry into the Mars atmosphere. At that dynamic pressure the parachute will deploy and the module will land on the Black Sea surface and will be recovered by the Romanian Naval Forces.

The EcoRocket Demonstrator (formerly just EcoRocket) is a partially reusable three stage orbital launch vehicle currently under development. The EcoRocket Demonstrator had been slated to launch in 2022, however, no launch took place that year. The vehicle's reusable first stage will use a battery powered steam rocket to propel a small second stage to an altitude of 7 kilometers. The second stage will then proceed to a higher altitude to deploy a smaller third stage, carrying the payload. The third stage utilizes RP 1 and high test peroxide to propel a payload of up to 10 kilograms into orbit. The rocket takes its name from the claimed ecological benefits of not burning as much kerosene (despite using kerosene to achieve most of orbital velocity). The EcoRocket will launch partially submerged in the Black Sea, in a similar manner to the Sea Dragon. Both the first and second stages are intended to be reusable, parachuting back into the ocean for recovery. The vehicle is intended to demonstrate technologies for the upcoming EcoRocket Heavy.

The EcoRocket Heavy is a planned variant of EcoRocket, designed to support ARCA's AMi asteroid mining initiative. The EcoRocket heavy will be a three stage launch vehicle derived from EcoRocket's technology. The stages will be arranged concentrically around the payload in the center (in a layout occasionally called "onion staging"), with the outermost stage firing, then detaching and allowing the next outermost stage to ignite, and so on. The EcoRocket heavy, like the EcoRocket, will use a three stage design, with the first two stages using steam power and the final stage using a kerosene/liquid oxygen mixture to propel itself to orbit. Each stage will consist of multiple "propulsion modules" attached together, which the CEO Popescu describes as being inspired by the now defunct German launch company OTRAG. The vehicle will be thirty meters in diameter, and, like the EcoRocket Demonstrator, will launch from the ocean, and be partially reusable, recovering the first two stages. The EcoRocket Heavy abandons aerospike engines, using only traditional rocket nozzles. ), which will use the engine on its service module to approach the target asteroid. The spacecraft will then harpoon the asteroid, then reel itself in to begin mining operations. Upon completion of mining, it will return to the AMi Cargo vehicle, which will propel it back to Earth. Upon reaching Earth, the capsule will detach and jettison the service module prior to reentry. The capsule will then perform a high velocity landing at sea, without the use of a parachute, relying on the structural integrity of the 7 meter diameter heat shield on the front of the return capsule for safe recovery of the material inside. A subscale demonstration of this technique was performed in October 2023, using a manned hot air balloon during Mission 12, carried out alongside the RTV’s Mission 16. ARCA intends to eventually upgrade the spacecraft for uncrewed missions to other planets. To support deep space operations, ARCA intends to construct their own Deep Space Network, akin to NASA's system.

Venator was a liquid fueled pressure fed rocket engine that will be used to power the second stage of the Haas 2C rocket. It burned liquid oxygen and kerosene and had a maximum thrust of The engine had no valves on the main pipes. Instead, it used burst disks on the main pipes, between the tanks and the engine. The second stage was pressurized at at lift off and after the first stage burn out, the second stage would be pressurized at 16 atm. At that pressure the disks would burst and the fuel would flow through the engine.

The Launch Assist System was an aerospike engine that was to use electrically heated water to produce steam, which would then generate thrust. The LAS was to reduce cost of rockets by manner of reducing the associated complexity, since steam powered rockets are far less complex than even the simplest liquid fueled engines. It was to be a self contained unit including both the engine and propellant tank. It could theoretically achieve a specific impulse of 67 seconds. The LAS was proposed to be a first stage for the Haas 2CA rocket, or to serve as a strap on booster for existing vehicles, including the Atlas V, Falcon 9, Delta IV, and Ariane 6. The EcoRocket Demonstrator and Heavy will use a reworked version of this system with two nozzles (one for launch, and one for landing) called the LAS 25D.

Mission 1 took place on December 2, 2006, when a solar balloon carried the STABILO system capsule to an altitude of The altitude was slightly lower than intended because of extreme turbulence encountered during the last stage of the flight. In light of this, it was decided not to risk damaging the system. The flight had been planned since August 2006, when another large solar balloon was launched at low altitude in controlled flight. During this time a specially designed parachute was tested. It was the first stratospheric flight performed by ARCA, and the event was transmitted live; over 20 journalists were present.

Mission 2 of STABILO 1B was launched on 27 September 2007 from Cape Midia Air Force Base. The Romanian Air Force participated with two radar stations. Civil Aviation and the Romanian Navy also participated, the latter with one naval diver's ship. The first and second vehicle stages reached an altitude of After one hour and 30 minutes and having traveled from the launch location, STABILO landed on the sea surface and was intercepted by a Navy Saturn ship and recovered by divers. The recovery ship was guided by the satellite transmission system and by Air Force radar. The vehicle was transported to the Navy shipyard. The electronic equipment continued to transmit to the command center even 8 hours after the flight had ended.

Helen was a demonstrator rocket for the Haas balloon launched orbital rocket. It was intended to test in flight the avionics and gravitational stabilization method proposed for the much larger Haas rocket. Helen was intended to reach an altitude of Two versions were created, a three stage rocket that had cylindrical tanks and used hydrogen peroxide as monopropellant fuel, and a two stage spherical tank rocket that used the same propulsion type. The rocket used a physically flawed stabilization technique based on the pendulum rocket fallacy. For Mission 4 ARCAspace decided to use a helium balloon instead and to redesign the Helen rocket. The new version, named Helen 2, was prepared for flight on August 4, 2010. When balloon inflation was initiated, the balloon ruptured because of a construction error and the mission was cancelled. A new attempt was made on October 1, 2010, by using only the final stage of the Helen 2 rocket and a smaller helium balloon. The flight, named Mission 4B, was successful, Helen 2 launching at an altitude of and the rocket reaching an altitude of After the difficulties encountered with stratospheric balloons, ARCA decided to stop work on the Haas rocket and design a new family of ground launched orbital and suborbital rockets.

Mission 5 was carried out in partnership with the Romanian Air Club and the Romanian Aeronautic Federation. It took place before the Helen 2 rocket launch. The flight took place on April 27, 2010, between 07:45 and 08:45 AM, taking off from Hogiz, Brasov. A manned hot air balloon lifted the Helen 2 rocket pressurised capsule to an altitude of The maximum distance between the carrier balloon and the command center at Sanpetru airfield was , which corresponded with the Helen 2 rocket simulated safety zone. The balloon crew was composed of Mihai Ilie – pilot, Mugurel Ionescu – copilot, and Dumitru Popescu – ELL equipment operator. The objective of the flight was to test telemetry, command and live TV transmission for the Helen 2 rocket.

Mission 6 tested the recovery system for the IAR 111 supersonic plane crew capsule. On September 26, 2011, a Mi 17 helicopter from Special Aviation Unit lifted the capsule to above mean sea level. At that altitude, the helicopter released the capsule. The parachute deployed, and the capsule landed on the sea surface. It was recovered by the same helicopter with the help of the Romanian Coast Guard.

WP3 was a validation test flight for the ExoMars Program High Altitude Drop Test (HADT), carried out in cooperation with the European Space Agency. The launch took place from the Black Sea coast on September 16, 2013, and the hardware comprised three pressurized containers containing the avionics equipment that will be necessary to test the ExoMars spacecraft parachute during future incoming flights. The pressurized containers, carried by a cluster balloon, were launched at 7:15 AM and the ascension took 90 minutes. When the containers reached an altitude of , they were released under a dedicated recovery parachute and landed on the sea twenty minutes later. The containers and the recovery parachute were recovered by the Navy from the launch point. The objectives were flight testing the avionics and communication systems, demonstrating the container sealing after sea landing and the capability to identify and recover the equipment from the sea surface.

Mission 10 will be the first orbital flight of the EcoRocket Demonstrator.

Mission 11 was the first mission under the new Commercial EcoRocket (CER) program. The test validated the canister exist sequence of the CER 160TR artillery target rocket, in a similar manner to the silo exit of a missile or interceptor. The test took place in November 2023.

Mission 12 tested the new design and landing technique for the AMi capsule in October 2023. Since the capsule’s full scale diameter is ~7 meters, ARCA constructed a subscale vehicle for the test. The demonstrator was carried to an altitude of ~600m by a manned hot air balloon and was released. The vehicle took roughly 15 seconds to impact the ground, where the parachute less, high velocity landing method was validated by the acceptable damage the vehicle sustained.

Mission 13 was a launch of the LAS 1 rocket from an ARCA built water tower, to validate and assess the performance of the engine’s start and thrust while submerged. This will be the case for the EcoRocket Demonstrator, 5, and Heavy’s sea launch procedure. In March 2023, following some delays, the LAS 1 was launched and the test was successful.

The Mission 15 series of EcoRocket flights will eventually lead to ARCA’s first orbital spaceflight. Mission 15 has been described as using the EcoRocket 5 vehicle, with an unknown ecological third stage. Mission 15A aims to reach the orbital altitude of 180km during a suborbital/vertical flight. 15B intends to place the company’s first satellite into orbit. Timeline is unknown.

Mission 16 was performed with the CER program’s RTV vehicle, a payload launched by a CER rocket in order to simulate an enemy attack and to train anti ballistic forces. It was performed minutes before Mission 12, as both vehicles were carried by the same manned hot air balloon. The drop test collected data on the vehicle’s stability and flight parameters at low speeds and altitudes, without using the spin stabilization system.