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CORDIS

SMILE - SMall Innovative Launcher for Europe

Objective

Current launchers (ARIANE6 and VEGA C) will guarantee Europe’s independent access to space for the high-end satellite market. These launchers however are significantly less attractive for classes of smaller satellites.

The SMILE initiative therefore addresses reliable, affordable, quick and frequent access to space for the emerging market of small satellites up to 50 kg, fulfilling the needs from the European space RTD community and commercial initiatives to put satellites into preferred orbits within a preferred time window. Herewith a market niche is addressed, which is projected to grow significantly in the coming decades and presently lacks availability of a European launcher.

The project focuses on research and innovation to obtain European solutions enabling the development and realization of such a launcher system. Main objectives are to:
• develop a concept for an innovative, cost-effective European launcher system for small satellites (target price below 50.000 Euro/kg)
• design a Europe-based ground facility for these launcher systems
• increase the Technology Readiness Level of several critical technologies required for such a launcher including the development and demonstration of component prototypes
• create a roadmap defining the development plan for the launcher system from a technical operational and economical perspective

These objectives are achieved through combined research into a novel and innovative launcher system following a multidisciplinary concurrent engineering design and optimization approach. The overall design and development process encompasses technology and process advances aiming at cost reduction, such as series production, re-usability, and the applicability of European industrial grade components.

The consortium is composed of organizations in relevant fields from eight European countries, from well-established and experienced SMEs to young and innovative start-ups.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

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Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

RIA - Research and Innovation action

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-COMPET-2015

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Coordinator

STICHTING NATIONAAL LUCHT- EN RUIMTEVAARTLABORATORIUM
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 695 000,00
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 695 592,50

Participants (13)

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