Arkadia Space and the EIC Accelerator: Green Thrusters Find Buyers

The European Space Agency calls hydrazine, the usual satellite propellant, extremely toxic, and the engineers who load it wear protective gear. ESA wrote in 2013 that the EU's REACH framework had put it on the candidate list of substances of very high concern in 2011, and in 2015 that it was likely to be given a sunset date. Arkadia Space, a company at Castellón Airport in eastern Spain, builds thrusters that run on high-test hydrogen peroxide instead.

The EIC Accelerator selected Arkadia at its October 2025 cut-off for blended finance. CORDIS records a grant agreement signed on 17 June 2026, an EU contribution of €2,447,715.90 and a project running from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2028. Its aim is to take a 200 N bipropellant thruster from technology readiness level 6 to 9. Before the grant was signed, the company had flown a complete system in orbit, in March 2025, and announced contracts with MaiaSpace, Dassault Aviation and Reflex Aerospace.

Peroxide instead of hydrazine

Arkadia's monopropellant thrusters run on 98% hydrogen peroxide, which Payload describes as safe to handle, and ESA says the ARIEL design emits up to 40% less than hydrazine over its life cycle. On performance, ESA's December 2025 feature gives Arkadia's 250 N ARIEL thruster a vacuum specific impulse of more than 178 seconds. The company's website quotes up to 310 seconds for its hydrogen peroxide propulsion without saying which engine reaches it.

The EIC project is about the next step, a bipropellant engine. Arkadia pairs the peroxide with what it calls a proprietary green fuel that ignites on contact, so the engine needs no ignition system, per tech.eu. CEO Francho García told Payload: "There's no other green fuel that you can hypergolize." The sources disagree on the engine's size. CORDIS and the company website describe a 200 N thruster (PHANTOM 200N on the site), while Payload reported that the new engine reaches up to 500 N.

What the March 2025 flight showed

DARK, a complete system with tanks, thrusters and in-house electronics, launched on 15 March 2025 on a D-Orbit ION carrier during SpaceX's Transporter-13 mission, according to a release by Draper B1 of 9 June 2025. Arkadia says all components were validated and calls itself the first European company to demonstrate hydrogen peroxide propulsion in orbit. D-Orbit's Matteo Andreas Lorenzoni was quoted: "Seeing DARK operating in orbit is a major milestone." Payload reported the company's account that the flight data matched or bettered hydrazine equivalents and showed impulse bits below 100 millinewton seconds.

No firing count, total impulse or telemetry has been published, so the result rests on statements by Arkadia and its carrier. The flight was also later than first planned: the October 2023 seed announcement in Alicante Plaza set a first demonstration flight for the end of 2024, and it flew in March 2025.

Three buyers, none with a published price

• MaiaSpace. The small-launcher company, which AeroTime describes as an Arianespace subsidiary, chose the 250 N ARIEL for its launcher's reaction control system, Arkadia's first commercial contract, announced in February 2025 according to Espaitec and confirmed by ESA. Units and value were not disclosed.
• Dassault Aviation. Arkadia announced on 21 April 2026 that it will supply a complete reaction control system built on ARIEL for the VORTEX-D spaceplane demonstrator, whose first flight is targeted for 2028, per AeroTime. AeroTime noted that Dassault had not commented publicly.
• Reflex Aerospace. The German satellite maker's release of 9 June 2026 says Arkadia will supply TRITON 5 N thrusters, 7 litre tanks and electronics for a satellite of about 200 kg, launching as early as the second quarter of 2027. Payload reported the same deal.

All three contracts use the monopropellant line, not the bipropellant engine the EIC is funding. The ARIEL work itself grew out of ESA money: ESA says the Future Launchers Preparatory Programme contract was signed in June 2023 and that ARIEL reached TRL 6 within two years, after more than 2,000 pulses and up to five minutes of steady firing per engine.

The package and what is confirmed of it

In March 2026 the company announced €14.5 million, as reported by tech.eu and by Espaitec, the Universitat Jaume I science park: a €2.5 million grant, €6 million of equity through the EIC Fund and €6 million of private investment. Arkadia was one of 61 companies selected from 923 applicants. Payload reported that the private €6 million came from an undisclosed source, while Nordic9 describes €12.5 million of series A investment from the EIC Fund and other investors, a split that does not match the company's. CORDIS records only the grant, at €2,447,715.90. No EIC Fund disclosure of the equity amount could be found; the EIC Fund's portfolio page could not be read on 4 November 2026.

Before that, Arkadia raised a €2.8 million seed round in October 2023 led by the Valencian fund Draper B1, with Expansion Ventures and angels from Valencia and Castellón, per Alicante Plaza and Capital Riesgo. Alicante Plaza's headline lists former astronaut Pedro Duque among the investors, while its text names him and Loft Orbital founder Antoine de Chassy as advisers.

The register entries summarised by Infonif show three capital increases between June 2021 and January 2024, a board led by Francisco José García Lacarte with the investment manager Business Boost SGEIC SA as a director, accounts filed for 2024 and no insolvency entry. The official gazette BORME of 19 September 2023 records the company as an "empresa emergente" (start-up). Revenue, results and staff in the filed accounts are behind a paywall and could not be checked. In December 2024 Valencia Plaza reported that the company had built 11 engines that year and planned 42 for 2025, and quoted co-founder Sergio Soler calling a new ESA contract for a capsule engine its most important to date; whether the 42 engines were built is not public.

What the EIC project promised, and what can be checked

1. Hydrogen peroxide system in orbitBefore the grantDARK on Transporter-13, March 2025, per the company and D-Orbit; no telemetry published.
2. Commercial customersAnnouncedMaiaSpace, Dassault Aviation, Reflex Aerospace, all for monopropellant hardware.
3. Bipropellant engine to TRL 9Too earlyProject runs to June 2028; no hot-fire data or flight date published.
4. Lower costs than hydrazineCompany claimMore than 60% lower operating and refuelling cost, per tech.eu; no independent figure.

Why the EU funds it

The European case for Arkadia rests on two documented points. Hydrazine is a substance of very high concern under REACH, per ESA, and ESA has funded Arkadia's peroxide thrusters through its launcher programme. And one customer names supply as a reason: Reflex's chief executive spoke of supply chain independence. Payload reported García saying that "ESA is one of the first entities interested in substituting hydrazine systems". CORDIS tags 40% of the grant to climate action, clean air and biodiversity. Whether hydrazine's REACH status has changed since ESA's 2015 article was not established from the sources reviewed.

The reporting is based on publicly available sources, listed below.