The round is co-led by Balnord and Expansion, and joined by Keen Defence and Security. The European Innovation Council (EIC) participates through its Accelerator programme via blended financing, combining grant and equity components. Additional investors include OTB Ventures, High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), APEX Ventures, Seraphim, Faber, E2MC, Kirch Ventures, Lennertz & Co., Mätch VC, MBG Baden-Württemberg, and Tech Horizons.
Following its PHOENIX 1 demonstration flight in April 2025, the company is now moving from demonstration to routine operations. Three PHOENIX 2 orbital transfer and return vehicles (OTRVs) will be constructed and operated as a phased operational mission campaign, servicing institutional and commercial clients across a range of payload and mission profiles.
“This financing allows us to move to regular operational service. A structured campaign of three vehicles establishes Europe’s first routine orbital return infrastructure. PHOENIX 2 is the first step to build a scalable European return infrastructure that will demonstrate our ability to access, operate, and return materials, data, and hardware from orbit independently. With ATMOS WORKS and PHOENIX 3, we are building the full architecture – commercial, institutional, and defence-capable – in parallel.”
PHOENIX 2 is a free-flying spacecraft equipped with integrated propulsion and power systems, capable of mission durations from hours to several months in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The vehicle performs autonomous de-orbit, controlled atmospheric re-entry using ATMOS’s Inflatable Atmospheric Decelerator (IAD) technology, which serves as both a heat shield and an aerodynamic brake. Its non-ablative design minimizes material loss and environmental impact while maximizing payload-to-mass efficiency and re-entry precision for rapid payload recovery.
Initial recovery operations are being prepared near Santa Maria in the Azores, under Portugal’s ANACOM-09/2026-AE licence enabling commercial orbital re-entry operations under a continental European Union member state’s jurisdiction.
The three-flight campaign creates an initial operational cadence, reduces programme risk, and gives research institutions, industrial customers, and government users a clear path to fly missions. In doing so, it begins to turn orbital return into a repeatable European service rather than a one-off demonstration.
“ATMOS is building exactly the kind of dual-use capability Europe needs more of: sovereign access not only to orbit, but back from orbit. We believe ATMOS can become a crucial part of the logistics backbone of a real European space industrial base — one built on operational services, strategic autonomy, and the ability to serve commercial, institutional, and defence customers from the same platform.”
ATMOS Space Cargo is launching ATMOS WORKS, a dedicated business focused on space logistics and operational capabilities for European governmental and defence customers. The PHOENIX platform’s dual-use architecture supports mission profiles including in-orbit demonstration and validation (IOD/IOV) , secure and sovereign return of sensitive hardware and data, and responsive time-critical operations.
“ATMOS is building a capability Europe critically lacks: a sovereign, repeatable ability to return payloads from orbit. This investment supports the emergence of orbital return as essential infrastructure for Europe’s commercial, institutional, and security needs.”
PHOENIX 3: Next-Generation Orbital Return Vehicle Development
ATMOS has begun development of PHOENIX 3, a next-generation orbital transfer and re-entry vehicle designed for a payload capacity of approximately one metric tonne – roughly ten times that of the PHOENIX 2.
The vehicle is being designed to address larger payload classes, aggregated multi-customer missions, and future institutional and security requirements.
PHOENIX 3 is intended to meet the needs of Europe’s evolving space economy, supporting sovereign access to and from orbit, independent technology validation, and the long-term needs of European industry, government, and security users.
“If a conflict breaks out in the Suwałki Gap tomorrow, Europe needs critical assets like drones, armored vehicles, or UGVs deployed within hours, not days. ATMOS is enabling exactly that. Their PHOENIX capsule allows governments and defense operators to keep high-value systems in orbit and deploy them rapidly anywhere on the globe. This introduces a fundamentally new logistics layer, connecting space directly to real-world operations. It’s rare to find a founder with Sebastian’s drive and clarity of vision, and we’re proud to partner with him and the ATMOS team in strengthening European sovereignty.”
