PLD Space delays Miura 5's first orbital launch to the first half of 2027
From the Space digest for 2026-10-22
What happened: SpaceNews reported on October 22, 2026 that Spanish launch company PLD Space is now planning the first orbital launch of its Miura 5 rocket in the first half of 2027, moving the debut well past the end-of-2026 first-flight expectation PLD Space had held since June 2026 and reiterated at the European Launcher Challenge awards in August.
What's genuinely new: Development of the "space — European commercial launch: Isar reaches orbit" thread, which already carries PLD Space's Miura program record — the ELC awards, the Block 1.2 evolution rebranded as Miura 9 in September, and the October 19 report that system-level Miura 5 testing had begun with the first three vehicles in manufacturing. The genuinely new fact is the formal date slip: the end-of-2026 debut target is no longer the plan of record, replaced by a first-half-2027 window. It lands just three days after the testing-advance report, and it raises the stakes under the ELC's milestone-gated funding, where Component A support hinges on reaching orbit before end-2027.
Watch: Whether the end-2027 ELC orbit gate still holds comfortable margin against an H1-2027 debut; who books the early Miura 5 flights; whether ESA's December ministerial reacts to the challenger field's slipping clocks after Skyrora's retreat to 2030.
Links: SpaceNews