The Exploration Company

The Exploration Company (TEC) is a Munich-based European space logistics startup founded in 2021 developing Nyx, a reusable uncrewed cargo spacecraft designed to deliver supplies to the ISS, future commercial space stations (Axiom, Vast, Starlab, ORCAS), and eventually lunar surface outposts. Nyx is designed around a common spacecraft core that can be reconfigured for different mission types: a pressurized cargo module for delivering food, water, experiments, and crew consumables to stations; and a future propulsion module for higher-energy missions.

The pressurized Nyx Earth module targets approximately 3,000 kg of cargo to ISS orbit — significantly less than SpaceX Dragon or Northrop Grumman Cygnus, but positioned as a smaller, more cost-competitive European alternative capable of serving the growing commercial station market that cannot be entirely serviced by U.S. providers. The reusability architecture focuses on the service module, which would perform propulsive deorbit control and potentially return the pressurized module intact for refurbishment, enabling multi-mission life.

The Exploration Company is one of a cluster of European commercial spacecraft startups backed by ESA's BEPICOLOMBO Space Resources and commercial cargo partnership programs — alongside HEO Robotics, Rocket Factory Augsburg, and Isar Aerospace — that ESA is supporting as an alternative to total dependence on U.S. providers following the cancellation of Europe's own IXV and Space Rider reentry programs. TEC raised a €40.5 million Series A co-led by EQT Ventures and Red River West.

Its Mission Possible capsule flew in June 2025 as a partial success (lost during descent after re-entry); the full-scale Nyx Earth flight, under ESA's LEO Cargo Return Service programme, is targeted for 2028.