The Exploration Company (TEC), a European space startup, has raised $450 million in what it calls the largest-ever Series C funding round by a European space firm, as investors bet on rivals to challenge SpaceX's dominance in reusable spacecraft. The Munich-founded, multi-country company aims to build a reusable European heavy-lift launcher, tapping into growing concerns about space "sovereignty" and demand that SpaceX's Falcon rockets, increasingly tied up with Starlink satellite launches, cannot meet.

Led by former Airbus and ArianeGroup executive Hélène Huby, TEC's immediate priority is Nyx, a reusable cargo capsule similar to SpaceX's Dragon, which it hopes will dock with the International Space Station and return to Earth by November 2028, before eventually carrying crew. Atomico, which co-led the round alongside EQT's Scaleup Europe Fund and Bessemer Venture Partners, says ten Nyx missions are already booked, worth more than $2 billion in contracts from partners including the European Space Agency and NASA. The funding will also support TEC's Storm rocket engine programme, though further money will be needed for a launch pad and rocket itself; the news follows German rival Isar Aerospace's own milestone launch from Norway last week, and comes as US-based Stoke Space separately pursues a $1 billion Series E round.