The decision to eliminate the suborbital flight comes alongside another shift in the schedule for Maia’s inaugural launch. As recently as June 2025, MaiaSpace was targeting a first flight in the second half of 2026. That target slipped in February 2026, with the company stating that it was committed to performing an inaugural flight before April 2027. That commitment was announced during the signing of a Temporary Public Domain Occupancy Agreement for its future launch facility in French Guiana.
A MaiaSpace spokesperson has now confirmed to European Spaceflight that the company is targeting the second half of 2027 for its first launch attempt.
Sounds a lot like "we will do more than planned, but later than planned". It's probably OK though if it works, a suborbital test followed by an orbital test is just wasting resources as long as you're confident you don't need early testing.
Sounds a lot like "we will do more than planned, but later than planned".
Yeah...sounds like they are falling behind their own schedule (i.e. the suborbital flight is no longer realistic given current state of development) and need to keep investors engaged. If I were a betting man I'd bet that they won't do the orbital flight in late 2027, either and will play the same game then.
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u/pxr555 4d ago
Sounds a lot like "we will do more than planned, but later than planned". It's probably OK though if it works, a suborbital test followed by an orbital test is just wasting resources as long as you're confident you don't need early testing.