Monal Aerospace is a new Dutch space startup with a mission to access space with (human) spaceflight from continental Europe. Two main markets are identified:
- Human space flight into suborbital microgravity. The suborbital spacecraft combines a large payload volume with low acceleration levels throughout the flight. These are two advantages over the current way of flying microgravity research; unmanned sounding rockets.
- Launching nano- and microsatellites into low Earth orbit. The satellite launcher provides for very customizable orbit insertion: when you want, where you want.
About the name Monal Aerospace:
The Monal bird is a beautifully iridiscent colored bird, which can be found in and around the Himalaya mountain range in Nepal and India. It is a high-altitude bird, which links to our spacecraft mission.
Even more striking are the orange tail feathers. We think that the bright colored tail is very much like the exhaust flame of a rocket engine! This rocket powered bird flies to great heights.
Because of hunting, and a shrinking habitat, the monal is now an endangered species. Therefore, some mention of this colorful bird for awareness is deserved!