ESA will pay an Italian company nearly $50 million to design a mini-Starship
The European Space Agency signed a contract Monday with Avio, the Italian company behind the small Vega rocket, to begin designing a reusable upper stage capable of flying into orbit, returning to Earth, and launching again.
This is a feat more difficult than recovering and reusing a rocket's booster stage, something European industry has also yet to accomplish. SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket has a recoverable booster, and several companies in the United States, China, and Europe are trying to replicate SpaceX's success with the partially reusable Falcon 9.
While other rocket companies try to catch up with the Falcon 9, SpaceX has turned its research and development dollars toward Starship, an enormous fully reusable rocket more than 400 feet (120 meters) tall. Even SpaceX, buttressed by the deep pockets of one of the world's richest persons, has had trouble perfecting all the technologies required to make Starship work.