FRANCE BACKS DASSAULT’S VORTEX REUSABLE SPACEPLANE PROJECT

Dassault Aviation welcomed France’s decision to support its VORTEX spaceplane project, announced by French President Emmanuel Macron on 10 September during the International Space Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris. The French presidency’s own account of the summit records that it ran over two days, 9 and 10 September, and drew representatives from 90 countries and international organisations, around 60 of them at head of state, head of government or ministerial level, alongside close to 1,100 space sector companies, with the French government framing the event around three priorities: international cooperation on the global space economy, scientific innovation and exploration, and space security. “This project, supported by France, should lead several countries, Germany and others, to join this ambition for mastering mobility in space,” said Éric Trappier, Chairman and CEO of Dassault Aviation.

WHAT VORTEX ACTUALLY IS

VORTEX stands for Véhicule Orbital Réutilisable de Transport et d’Exploration, or Orbital Reusable Vehicle for Transport and Exploration. Dassault describes it on its own programme page as an intrinsically dual-use vehicle able to operate in orbit and then return to Earth by landing on a conventional runway, much like an aircraft, combining orbital and atmospheric manoeuvrability with a large cargo bay and full reusability across repeated missions. Dassault sets out four intended operational roles for the vehicle: transporting cargo and crew to orbital stations, operating autonomously as a free-flying orbital platform, servicing and maintaining other satellites and spacecraft in orbit, and pre-positioning assets in orbit for later use. The company has laid out an incremental four-phase development path, moving from a smaller-scale VORTEX-D flight demonstrator, through the VORTEX-S free-flyer configuration now being proposed to the European Space Agency, to a full-scale VORTEX-C cargo variant and, eventually, a crew-rated VORTEX-M.

THE OHB PARTNERSHIP AND A WIDENING CONSORTIUM

Dassault’s partnership with the German space company OHB, referenced in the 10 September announcement, was itself first announced in a joint statement issued from Saint-Cloud and Bremen on 11 May 2026, when the two companies agreed to jointly propose the VORTEX-S configuration to the European Space Agency. Under that arrangement, Dassault acts as prime architect and integrator of the vehicle as a whole, while OHB serves as architect and integrator of its service module, the section of a spacecraft that typically houses propulsion, power and other support systems. OHB’s chief executive, Marco Fuchs, described the tie-up at the time as a natural fit between two family-run, high-technology companies bringing complementary strengths to a reusable spaceplane. Since May, discussions have widened to include other named partners: Switzerland’s APCO Technologies, Germany’s MT Aerospace, Spain’s Sener, Belgium’s Sonaca, and France’s Space Cargo Unlimited, alongside what Dassault describes as further companies still to be confirmed.

Note: Dassault’s own published materials do not yet give VORTEX a public specification sheet, mass, dimensions or a target first-flight date for any of the four phases; the programme remains at the proposal and government-backing stage rather than under construction.