Venture Orbital Systems (VOS) has shown steady progress toward the development of their orbital launcher over the past few months. To further this momentum, the company recently closed a major agreement in funding that contains decisive backing and the closing of a 10 million euros Series A funding round. This funding will be an essential factor for all the projects and activities the company must now carry out to pave the firm’s way to orbit.
Since moving into the company’s first micro-launcher factory in Reims, France, in October of 2021, the team at VOS has been achieving momentum toward the first flight of the company’s Zephyr.
To ensure future launches, VOS signed the first MoU with Scotland’s SaxaVord Spaceport in February of this year. During the winter, VOS also ran a test campaign of the engine igniter directly in the company’s factory. This hardware exploration is a key milestone in the development of Navier, our in-house fully 3D-printed engine that will propel Zephyr. Also accomplished was the moving forward with the design of a future mass-production site.
To strengthen the firm’s teams, 40 talented people that included many engineers joined in all departments. Numerous support vacancies representing various skills (HR, accounting, communication) were also filled to assist company growth.
Encouraging support from CNES, the French space agency, was received, whose General Director Philippe Baptiste recently visited the company. The French government also showed strong support to the idea of a French micro-launcher and is advocating for a more competitive and independent European Space sector.
Among VOS priorities is to perform ground tests of Mark 1, the first iteration of Navier. Moreover, the company will be able to make major progress on the development of Zephyr systems, electronics and software.
The whole VOS team would like to thank all the partners believing in this adventure and allowing the company to move forward: Crédit Mutuel Innovation, Expansion, BPI and French Tech Seed, UI Investissement, Nicomatic, Groupe ADF and Comat as well as employees and professionals of the aerospace sector.
Furthermore, this positive momentum is the opportunity for the company to adopt a new name, a simpler one that embodies the benefits to be brought to our future customers: more slots and more flexibility to launch and in the end provide their payload with more latitude to reach orbit. Therefore, Venture Orbital Systems changes the firm’s name and now becomes Latitude.