THEMIS

The SpIRIT mission will space-qualify three technologies: TheMIS (Thermal Management Integrated System), Mercury (an adaptive autonomous low-latency communications module), and an Australian-developed high-efficiency electric propulsion system.

ArianeGroup shipped the Themis demonstrator from a factory in France to the Esrange Space Center in Sweden for its first hop tests.

ArianeGroup engineers and the Swedish Space Corporation will perform a general rehearsal on the launch platform to validate the methane and liquid oxygen propellants used by Themis.

Themis has been developed under ESA's Future Space Transportation Preparation Programme with ArianeGroup as the prime contractor and numerous European industrial contributors.

In June 2025, the first Themis demonstrator was transported by ArianeGroup from its facility in Les Mureaux to the Esrange Space Centre in northern Sweden.

The acting Director of ESA’s Space Transportation programme, Toni Tolker-Nielsen, stated that the weather is currently preventing the initial test flight of Themis.

Testing of a more powerful three-engine variant of Themis, known as T3, is expected to begin at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana after testing in Kiruna is complete.

The LRBs would have been derived from the Themis reusable booster demonstrator, which ArianeGroup is developing under an ESA contract.

In June 2025, ArianeGroup transported the first Themis demonstrator from its facilities in Les Mureaux to the Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden.

On January 8, Toni Tolker-Nielsen, acting director of ESA's Space Transportation program, stated that weather has been a determining factor for the initial flight test of Themis.

On 15 December 2020, the European Space Agency awarded ArianeGroup a €33 million contract for the Themis Initial Phase to prepare flight vehicle technologies, the test bench and static firing demonstrations and to prepare the ground segment at Esrange for hop tests.

The Themis Initial Phase includes preparation of the Esrange Space Centre ground segment in Kiruna, Sweden for initial hop tests.

In late 2024 and 2025, ESA and ArianeGroup worked on reusable launcher pathfinders including Themis and preparations for hop tests in Kiruna, Sweden.

ESA began work on the Themis project in 2019 to mature reusable rocket technology for future European launch systems.

The first prototype of Themis is located at the launch platform in the Esrange Space Center in Sweden.

Themis is a reusable launch vehicle demonstrator being developed by ArianeGroup with support from the European Space Agency to test vertical takeoff and landing technologies.

ESA awarded ArianeGroup a contract for Themis in 2020 with the original expectation that the vehicle would be ready for full suborbital flight tests as early as 2023.

ESA awarded ArianeGroup a contract for Themis in 2020 with initial expectations for more advanced flight testing than the current hop-test schedule.