Flight 1

Overview

Destination: Suborbital
Mission: Test Flight

Suborbital Diamant Launch Area Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana
Callisto - Diamant Launch Area Landing Pad

First test flight of the Callisto VTVL demonstrator.

Updates

Nosu • Sept. 16, 2025, 11:24 a.m.

Adding launch


Callisto

Family:
Configuration:

Callisto is a demonstrator designed to conduct flight testing and mature the complex technologies required to return a launcher to Earth, as well as refurbishment operations between flights, and to precisely cost an operational European launcher with a reusable first stage (it is not intended to become an operational launcher). Standing for “Cooperative Action Leading to Launcher Innovation in Stage Toss-back Operations”, Callisto is a project being pursued with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the German space agency DLR. A large number of international contractors are also contributing to the experiment, among them ArianeGroup and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

See Details
Specifications
  • Stages
    1
  • Length
    13.0 m
  • Diameter
    1.1 m
  • Fairing Diameter
  • Launch Mass
  • Thrust
    46.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    Callisto
  • Family
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    Callisto
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
  • Low Earth Orbit
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity

Booster Info


Callisto


Type: Core
Flight Proven: No

Landing Information

The Callisto demonstrator will attempt to land back at the Diamant launch site after this flight

Landing Attempt Confirmed

National Center of Space Research

National Center of Space Research

(CNES)

CEO: François Jacq Founded: 1961 Successes: 12 Failures: 2 Pending: 1

Agency Type:

The National Center of Space Research, or CNES, is a French National Agency in charge of France's space program. In partnership with the US and Russia, they have put 10 people in space. CNES works in tandem with the larger ESA to develop the Ariane 5 and work on other probes and satellites. They are working with Germany to develop a cheaper and more efficient reusable rocket, which hopefully will be ready to fly by 2026.

INFO WIKI
European Spaceflight

Callisto Ground Support Robot Ready for Shipment

French engineering group Technip Energies (T.EN) is in the process of completing Factory Acceptance Tests for a robot that will be used to connect and disconnect umbilicals from the Callisto reusable rocket demonstrator before and after li…

European Spaceflight

DLR Delivers Callisto Landing Leg Prototype for Testing

The DLR Institute of Structures and Design has delivered the qualification model of the Callisto reusable rocket demonstrator’s landing leg to the DLR Institute of Space Systems in Bremen for testing. Callisto is an international reusable …

Arstechnica

Rocket Report: European rocket reuse test delayed; NASA tweaks SLS for Artemis II

"There’s a lot of interest because of the fear that there’s just not a lot of capacity."

Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana

Diamant Launch Area


Long March 2D
Success
3 hours, 55 minutes ago
PIESAT-2 13-16
Launch Complex 9 - Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

4 X-band synthetic-aperture radar Earth observation satellites for the Chinese Earth observation satellite company PIESAT.


Electron
Success
11 hours, 23 minutes ago
Owl By The Dozen (StriX Launch 12)
Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1B - Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand

Synthetic aperture radar satellite for Japanese Earth imaging company Synspective.


Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat-M
Success
1 day, 21 hours ago
Glonass-K1 No. 20 (?)
43/3 (43L) - Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation

Note: Satellite serial number and Cosmos designation not confirmed. Glonass-K are the third generation of satellite design for GLONASS satellite n…


Kuaizhou 11
Success
2 days, 12 hours ago
SpaceTY-51 & 52
Launch Area 95A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

2 Earth observation radar satellites built by the Chinese satellite manufacturer SpaceTY.


Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 13 hours ago
USSF-259
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

USSF-259 is a classified mission for the United States Space Force. It is possibly a batch of classified LEO satellites based on SpaceX’s Starshield …


Long March 12
Success
2 days, 14 hours ago
SatNet LEO Group 25
Commercial LC-2 - Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China

A batch of 9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites for the Chinese state owned SatNet constellation operated by the China Satellite Network Group.…


Soyuz 2.1b
Success
3 days, 1 hour ago
Progress MS-35 (96P)
31/6 - Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.


Gravity-1
Success
3 days, 16 hours ago
SpaceSail Polar Group #16
Yellow Sea (launch location 5) - Haiyang Oriental Spaceport

9 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites with Ku, Q and V band payloads for the G60 constellation operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies with …


Zhuque-2E Block 2
Success
4 days, 8 hours ago
SpaceSail Polar Group #15
Launch Area 96A - Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, People's Republic of China

10 Low Earth Orbit communication satellites with Ku, Q and V band payloads for the G60 constellation operated by Shanghai Spacesail Technologies with…


Vega-C
Success
4 days, 13 hours ago
Sentinel-3C & FLEX
Ariane Launch Area 1 (ELV) - Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana

Sentinel-3C is the third satellite in the Sentinel-3 constellation, which provides high-accuracy optical, radar and altimetry data for marine and lan…