ARCA Space

In early 2008 ARCA joined the Google Lunar X Prize competition and designed the Haas orbital launcher. Their lunar rover was named European Lunar Lander and used a monopropellant rocket engine for landing and hovering. Haas was a three-stage orbital rocket powered by hybrid engines using a bitumen-based fuel and hydrogen peroxide as oxidizer. It was supposed to be launched from 18,000 m carried by the largest solar balloon ever constructed, having a volume of 2 million cubic meters. For the Haas rocket, they created a three-stage much smaller demonstrator called Helen that was intended to test technologies and operation. The Helen rocket was intentionally not aerodynamically stabilized, being intended to use a technique based on the pendulum rocket fallacy. The Romanian bank BRD – Groupe Société Générale awarded ARCA a 300,000 euro sponsorship for their activities. Romanian cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu highly praised ARCA's achievements and noted their ability to efficiently utilize private funds. In 2009 ARCA performed a series of engine tests using the Stabilo rocket engine in order to validate the design for the Helen rocket.

The first attempt to launch the Helen rocket took place on November 14, 2009. Romanian Naval Forces participated with the NSSL 281 Constanta ship, the Venus divers ship, the Fulgerul fast boat and two other fast craft boats. For this mission, ARCA constructed a massive 150,000 cubic meter solar balloon, approximately five times as large as their previous balloon. After the balloon began inflating, the mission crew discovered that the balloon inflation arms were wrapped around the lower part of the balloon. Inflation was halted and the crew attempted to unwrap the arms. Three hours later the arms were repositioned and inflation was ready to resume but the sun was already nearing the horizon, and heating the solar balloon was no longer possible. The decision was made to cancel the mission.

ARCA decided to redesign the Helen rocket to use two stages and a helium balloon instead. They named the rocket Helen 2. On April 27, 2010, they performed an avionics test for the European Lunar Lander payload to be lifted by the Helen 2 rocket, using a hot air balloon that lifted three ARCA members to 5,200 m altitude. On August 4, 2010, a new attempt to launch the rocket was made, but a construction error in the helium balloon caused it to rupture and the mission was aborted. A new helium balloon was manufactured designed to carry only the second stage of Helen 2 rocket. On October 1, 2010, the rocket performed a successful flight to an altitude of 38,700 m reaching a maximum velocity of 2320 km/h. Upon atmospheric reentry the rocket capsule parachute failed to deploy and the capsule was lost at sea, but the data was transmitted to the mission control center on the 281 Constanta ship and to the Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration.

2011–2013: IAR-111 aircraft, Executor engine and Haas rocket family

After the difficulties encountered with the stratospheric balloons, ARCA decided to change their approach to orbital launch for the Google Lunar X Prize. They designed a supersonic rocket plane powered by a liquid-fueled rocket engine using kerosene as fuel and liquid oxygen as oxidizer. The aircraft, initially named E-111, was renamed IAR-111 after ARCA received permission from IAR S.A. Brasov to use the traditional IAR designation for military and civilian aircraft constructed since 1925. The aircraft was intended to fly to an altitude of 17.000 m and launch a heavily modified version of the Haas rocket, named Haas 2. Haas 2 was an air-launched three-stage orbital rocket intended to place a 200 kg payload into orbit. Work on the plane structure began in late 2010.

By 2011 all the fiberglass molds for the aircraft were finished and one-third of the aircraft structure was completed. The crew capsule escape system was tested on September 26, 2011, when a Mil Mi-17 helicopter belonging to the Special Aviation Unit dropped the capsule from an altitude of 700 m over the Black Sea. The emergency parachute deployed successfully and the capsule was recovered from the sea surface by the Romanian Coast Guard.

In 2012 ARCA decided to focus on the construction of the rocket engine of the IAR-111 aircraft. The engine, named Executor, is made of composite materials, has a thrust of 24 tons force (52,000 lbf) and is turbopump fueled. It uses ablative cooling for the main chamber and nozzle where the outer layers of the composite material vaporize in contact with the high temperature exhaust mixture and prevent overheating. ARCA also presented a long-term space program, until 2025, that besides IAR-111 envisioned a small scale orbital rocket (Haas 2C), a suborbital crewed rocket (Haas 2B) and a medium scale crewed orbital rocket (Super Haas). In March 2012, ARCA tested an extremely lightweight composite materials kerosene tank that is intended to be used for the Haas 2C rocket.

After criticism from the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) intensified in printed media and television, ARCA decided to send a public letter to the Romanian Prime Minister to intervene in this matter. ARCA mentioned that the Romanian Space Agency is in no position to criticize after the failure of their cubesat Goliat recently launched with a Vega rocket. Furthermore, ARCA was privately funded compared with ROSA which uses public funding.

In June 2012 ARCA presented their Haas 2C rocket in Victoria Square in Bucharest, in front of the Romanian Government palace. The same year ARCA won a $1,200,000 contract with the European Space Agency to participate in the ExoMars program. Named the High Altitude Drop Test, the contract consisted of a series of stratospheric balloon drop tests to verify the structural integrity of the EDM parachutes used in Martian atmospheric deceleration.

On September 16, 2013, ARCA performed the first successful flight in the ExoMars program, lifting three pressurised avionics containers over the Black Sea to an altitude of 24,400 m. In November, the concrete test stand for the Executor engine was completed.

2014–2019: AirStrato to Launch Assist System

On February 10 ARCA presented a high-altitude uncrewed aerial vehicle, named AirStrato, that was meant to replace stratospheric balloon usage for equipment testing and other near space missions. It was intended to be solar powered for extended endurance, was 7 m in length and had a 16 m wingspan with a takeoff weight of 230 kg. The aircraft first flew on February 28. ARCA announced that if the development was successful they would consider developing a commercial version available for sale to customers.

On October 17, 2014, ARCA announced that it had transferred its headquarters to the United States to Las Cruces, New Mexico. In a press release they announced that in Romania activities related to software and rocket engine development will continue. They also announced that Air Strato UAV would be available for purchase to customers and that Las Cruces will also serve as a production center for the aircraft. On November 25 they released a website for the UAV revealing two models available for purchase, AirStrato Explorer that could reach altitudes up to 18,000 m with 20 hours endurance and AirStrato Pioneer that would be limited to 8000 m and 12 hours endurance.

On July 13, 2015 ARCA announced the beginning of activities in New Mexico, including production and flight tests of AirStrato UAS and Haas rockets, investing US$1.2 million.

In November 2017, CEO Dimitru Popescu was arrested and charged with 12 counts of fraud. As a result, he left the country and reestablished operations in Romania. The charges were later dropped.

In early 2019, ARCA announced the development of the steam-powered Launch Assist System and began testing the aerospike engine.

2020–Present: EcoRocket, AMi, and Pivot to Asteroid Mining

In 2020, tests of the steam-powered aerospike continued and ARCA announced a new launch vehicle, the EcoRocket, derived from the LAS technology.

In 2021, the EcoRocket design was altered slightly to a three-stage vehicle as tests of the steam-powered aerospike continued.

In 2022, ARCA announced the AMi Exploration Initiative, effectively pivoting its business model away from the commercial launch sector and towards cryptocurrency and asteroid mining. The AMi program will utilize the AMi Cargo vehicle and EcoRocket Heavy to mine valuable materials from asteroids. Beginning in the late 2020s, the company plans to start a series of asteroid mining missions to return valuable metals (mostly platinum) to Earth for sale. It intends to fund this venture primarily through the sales of the AMi token, an upcoming cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain. Since then, it appears ARCA is shifting its main focus away from AMi, and towards the CER/military-related programs.

IAR-111 rocket plane

Romanian Aeronautical Industry Brașov (Romanian: Industria Aeronautica Romana Brașov), also known as IAR-111, was a sea-launched suborbital rocket plane. It used the same Executor engine as Haas 2B and 2C rockets. It was to have a length of 24 m (78 ft 9 in), a wingspan of 12 m (39 ft 4 in) and a take-off mass of 19 tonnes (42,000 lb). It can carry a crew of two, a pilot and a passenger. The flight sequence consists of take-off from sea surface, horizontal flight at subsonic speed, followed by a rapid climb to an altitude of 16,000 m (52,000 ft) in approximately two minutes. As a space tourism development platform, it could reach Mach 2.6 (3,190 km/h; 1,980 mph) at 30,000 m (98,000 ft). After fuel depletion, IAR-111 was to descend in gliding flight and land on the sea surface. In case of emergency, the crew capsule was to be detachable and equipped with two rocket-propelled parachutes.

The IAR-111 capsule was flight tested during Mission 6. The mission took place in cooperation with the Special Aviation Unit and the Coast Guard, belonging to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration.

AirStrato unmanned aerial vehicle

AirStrato was an electric powered medium-sized unmanned aerial vehicle that was being developed by ARCA. There were two variants planned, the AirStrato Explorer with a target flight ceiling of 18,000 m and AirStrato Pioneer with a target flight ceiling of 8000 m. It was supposed to carry a 45 kg payload consisting of surveillance equipment, scientific instruments, or additional battery pods for extended autonomy. The first prototype's maiden flight took place on February 28, 2014. It was equipped with fixed landing gear. Two more prototypes were constructed that lacked landing gear. Instead, ARCA opted for a pneumatic catapult as a launcher and landing skids and a recovery parachute for landing. Both prototypes only performed take-off and landing testing and short low-altitude flights.

ESA Drop Test Vehicle

ARCA has constructed a drop test vehicle for the European Space Agency intended to test the atmospheric deceleration parachutes for the ExoMars EDM lander module. It has the same weight and parachute deployment systems present on the ESA module. The DTV is intended to be lifted to an altitude of 24 km by a stratospheric helium balloon. From that height, it will fall freely reaching a dynamic pressure similar to that encountered by the ExoMars EDM at entry into the Mars atmosphere. At that dynamic pressure the parachute will deploy and the module will land on the Black Sea surface and will be recovered by the Romanian Naval Forces.

EcoRocket Demonstrator

The EcoRocket Demonstrator (formerly just EcoRocket) is a partially-reusable three-stage orbital launch vehicle currently under development. The EcoRocket Demonstrator had been slated to launch in 2022, however, no launch took place that year. The vehicle's reusable first stage will use a battery-powered steam rocket to propel a small second stage to an altitude of 7 kilometers. The second stage will then proceed to a higher altitude to deploy a smaller third stage, carrying the payload. The third stage utilizes RP-1 and high test peroxide to propel a payload of up to 10 kilograms into orbit. The rocket takes its name from the claimed ecological benefits of not burning as much kerosene (despite using kerosene to achieve most of orbital velocity). The EcoRocket will launch partially submerged in the Black Sea, in a similar manner to the Sea Dragon. Both the first and second stages are intended to be reusable, parachuting back into the ocean for recovery. The vehicle is intended to demonstrate technologies for the upcoming EcoRocket Heavy. As of mid-2024, ARCA announced the reactivation of the Demonstrator program, and has begun work on the refurbishment of a first stage tank to support at least one flight test.

EcoRocket Heavy

The EcoRocket Heavy is a planned variant of EcoRocket, designed to support ARCA's AMi asteroid mining initiative. Announced in 2022, the EcoRocket heavy will be a three-stage launch vehicle derived from EcoRocket's technology. The stages will be arranged concentrically around the payload in the center (in a layout occasionally called "onion staging"), with the outermost stage firing, then detaching and allowing the next outermost stage to ignite, and so on. The EcoRocket heavy, like the EcoRocket, will use a three-stage design, with the first two stages using steam power and the final stage using a kerosene/liquid oxygen mixture to propel itself to orbit. Each stage will consist of multiple "propulsion modules" attached together, which the CEO Popescu describes as being inspired by the now-defunct German launch company OTRAG. The vehicle will be thirty meters in diameter, and, like the EcoRocket Demonstrator, will launch from the ocean, and be partially reusable, recovering the first two stages. The EcoRocket Heavy abandons aerospike engines, using only traditional rocket nozzles.

AMi Cargo

The AMi Cargo vehicle is the vehicle designed to support ARCA's asteroid mining operations, and as the primary payload for the EcoRocket Heavy. The AMi Cargo vehicle will approach an asteroid, and then release the battery-powered Recovery Capsule (which, in the first iteration, appeared to be derived from the earlier suborbital capsule for the Haas 2B), which will use the engine on its service module to approach the target asteroid. The spacecraft will then harpoon the asteroid, then reel itself in to begin mining operations. Upon completion of mining, it will return to the AMi Cargo vehicle, which will propel it back to Earth. Upon reaching Earth, the capsule will detach and jettison the service module prior to reentry. The capsule will then perform a high-velocity landing at sea, without the use of a parachute, relying on the structural integrity of the 7-meter diameter heat shield on the front of the return capsule for safe recovery of the material inside. A subscale demonstration of this technique was performed in October 2023, using a manned hot air balloon during Mission 12, carried out alongside the RTV’s Mission 16. ARCA intends to eventually upgrade the spacecraft for uncrewed missions to other planets. To support deep space operations, ARCA intends to construct their own Deep Space Network, akin to NASA's system.

A1 Interceptor

The A1 is a strategic anti-ballistic interceptor system, based on the EcoRocket technology, announced in December 2023. The commercially available vehicle comes in two versions; the A1A & A1B. The basic premise and interception method of the vehicle consists of a 6-10 metric ton device (referred to as the “warhead”) carrying between 200,000-2,000,000 metal pellets, chaff, and flares, all of which are “electromechanically” deployed. Following the deployment of the warhead, the enemy ICBM, IRBM, CM, HM, or other form of conventional or nuclear weapon, impacts the dome, cloud, or dome sector created by the warhead. The impact either compromises the enemy weapon’s airframe, deceives and deviates it from the target, or destroying it before reaching the target. As of May 2024, ARCA has constructed one A1 vehicle, and plans to launch it on a demonstration flight in August 2024. ARCA has stated that the interception method was tested and/or demonstrated by the US government under the “Star Wars” program in the 1980s.

Commercial EcoRocket

While the organization’s main focus remains on the development of the EcoRocket orbital launchers, they have begun work on several other systems, in order to generate technical data and revenue for the AMi program’s hardware. The Commercial EcoRocket, or CER, is a series of 10 suborbital rockets, including the two A1 interceptor variants. The series consists of the CER-160, CER-500, CER-1200, the RTV & MIRTV, and the Target Rocket (“TR”) versions of all three vehicles. The CER-160 is the smallest vehicle in the series, with the 1200 being the largest. The civilian CER-160 is capable of reaching 20 kilometers in altitude, with a maximum speed of Mach 1.9, all while carrying a payload of up to 3 kilograms. The CER-500 rocket reaches 30 km and Mach 2.1, with a payload of 100 kg. Finally, the CER-1200 is able to reach 40 km and Mach 2.6 with a 1,000 kg payload. All civilian CER rockets launch from “canisters” (akin to silos) proportional to the rocket size. The Target Rocket versions of all 3 vehicles are available only to military customers, and feature canister angle support to allow for various firing angles, to alter the vehicle’s flight parameters. The RTV (Reentry Target Vehicle) & MIRTV (Multiple Independent Reentry Target Vehicles) are products designed to simulate the terminal flight of ballistic missiles, allowing for military forces to train their anti-missile systems in a cost-effect way. Both the RTV and MIRTV are launched by the CER-1200 rocket, though modified to feature an upper “booster” stage. ARCA proposes these products as alternatives to the expensive option of firing a real, but inert missile/weapon to train interception forces. The A1 is being developed and sold under the CER program.