International aerospace company MT Aerospace AG (Augsburg, Germany) announced that is has reached the final phase of the COSTELAS project (“Cost Optimized Sandwich Technology for Large-scale Structures”) after completing critical design review (CDR). The CDR has proven that the project’s innovatively manufactured composite structures enable significant mass savings compared to metallic structures at the same cost, and maintains a maturity in material, process and design.

Source | MT Aerospace AG via linkedIn

COSTELAS is part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Future Launchers Preparatory Program, which “oversees system studies and research activities to foster new technologies capable of delivering performance and reliability coupled with reduced operational costs” via space launch systems. This project in particular is leading the way for the development of reusable launchers with larger payloads.

MT Aerospace reports that the 2 × 3-meter composite structure is a sandwich construction that was achieved with only one curing process (watch its development here). Next, the COSTELAS structure is headed to testing, inspection and certification body Applus+ IMA (Dresden, Germany) for destructive testing.