arca see arca disambiguation . arca arca space corporation type private industry aerospace and space tourism founded 1999 headquarters las cruces new mexico usa key people dumitru popescu website www.arcaspace.com arca space corporation is an aerospace company based in las cruces new mexico that builds space rockets and other manned and unmanned aircraft intended for space exploration . it was founded in 1999 as a non governmental organization in romania by dumitru popescu and other rocket and aeronautics enthusiasts . since then arca launched two stratospheric rockets four large scale stratospheric balloons including a cluster balloon and was awarded two governmental contracts with the romanian government and one contract with the european space agency . arca is currently developing a suborbital rocket plane an orbital and suborbital rocket family and a stratospheric unmanned aerial vehicle . contents 1 history 1.1 1999 2004 demonstrator rocket family 1.2 2005 2010 stabilo and helen rockets 1.3 2011 2013 iar 111 aircraft executor engine and haas rocket family 1.4 2014 present airstrato and arca space corporation 2 vehicles 2.1 haas rocket family 2.1.1 haas 2b 2.1.2 haas 2c 2.2 iar 111 rocket plane 2.3 airstrato unmanned aerial vehicle 2.4 esa drop test vehicle 3 rocket engines 3.1 executor 3.2 venator 4 missions 4.1 mission 1 4.2 mission 2 4.3 mission 3 4 and 4b 4.4 mission 5 4.5 mission 6 4.6 wp3 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit 1999 2004 demonstrator rocket family edit orizont suborbital vehicle arca was established as romanian cosmonautics and aeronautics association asocia ia rom n pentru cosmonautic i aeronautic an non governmental organization in 1999 by a group of rocket and aeronautics enthusiasts . their goal was to construct and launch space rockets . after experimenting with designs for different fuels and rocket engine types including solid fuel rockets they decided using fiberglass for engine and tank construction and hydrogen peroxide as fuel . their first vehicle was named demonstrator and was a 10 meter long unguided self stabilized rocket . it never flew instead it was used in various public exhibitions to attract funds and sponsorships . 1 their second rocket demonstrator 2 was constructed in 2003 . for this arca created their first rocket engine testing installation where they tested their hydrogen peroxide engine . after the tests were successful they constructed demonstrator 2b which was an improved version of their previous rocket . it had a 4.5 m length and 0.77 m diameter and used a 18 m high launch pad . 2 in 2003 arca also signed for ansari x prize international competition and started design for orizont suborbital vehicle capable of carrying a crew of two up to an altitude of 100 km . orizont was to be arca s competing vehicle for ansari x prize . it was designed to use a disposable jet engine up to an altitude of 15 km and then ignite its main hydrogen peroxide rocket engine in order to propel it to the 100 km altitude . on september 9 2004 arca successfully launched demonstrator 2b rocket from cape midia air force base . because of powerful wind gusts up to 60 km h they were forced to use only 20 percent of the fuel quantity intended in order to keep with the allocated safety zone by the air force . the altitude reached was 1200 m. at the launch 90 journalists participated from romania germany and austria . 3 after the launch arca started construction of orizont spaceplane and completed the aircraft structure by 2005 . 4 2005 2010 stabilo and helen rockets edit stabilo rocket arca organized a public presentation of their orizont spaceplane in front of the palace of the parliament in bucharest . because of financial problems encountered with the construction of orizont arca decided to suspend its development and instead design a new much smaller rocket called stabilo . it was designed to be launched from a stratospheric solar balloon and carry one person into space . 5 design and construction of large scale polyethylene balloons started and on december 2 2006 at onesti bacau the crew capsule of stabilo rocket was lifted to an altitude of 14 700 m. the capsule was safely recovered that evening . the event was transmitted live on several romanian tv stations . 6 on 27 september 2007 the entire stabilo rocket crew caspule rocket booster was lifted to an altitude of 12 000 m using the largest solar balloon constructed until that date . the mission was launched from cape midia air force base and the rocket was recovered from the black sea surface by romanian navy divers . at this moment arca proved its ability to conduct large scale operations and to coordinate military institutions like the romanian navy and the romanian air force . 7 in 2007 arca won two governmental contracts with the research ministry for a suborbital rocket and a solar ballon . romanian space agency university of bucharest and other romanian institutions were subcontractors to arca for these projects . in early 2008 arca joined the google lunar x prize competition and designed the haas orbital launcher . 8 their lunar rover was named european lunar lander and used a monopropellant rocket engine for landing and hovering . haas was a three stage orbital rocket powered by hybrid engines using a bitumen based fuel and hydrogen peroxide as oxydizer . it was supposed to be launched from 18 000 m carried by the largest solar balloon ever constructed having a volume of 2 million cubic meters . 9 for the haas rocket they created a three stage much smaller demonstrator called helen that was intended to test technologies and operation . helen rocket was not intentionally aerodynamically stabilized being intended to use a technique based on the pendulum rocket fallacy . 10 romanian bank brd groupe soci t g n rale awarded arca with a 300 000 euro sponsorship for their activities . romanian cosmonaut dumitru prunariu highly praised arca s achievements and noted their ability to efficiently utilize private funds . 11 in 2009 arca performed a series of engine tests using the stabilo rocket engine in order to validate the design for the helen rocket . the first attempt to launch helen rocket took place on november 14 2009 . romanian naval forces participated with the nssl 281 constanta ship venus divers ship fulgerul fast boat and two other fast craft boats . for this mission arca constructed a massive 150 000 cubic meter solar balloon approximately five times as large as their last balloon . after balloon inflation started the mission crew discovered that the balloon inflation arms were wrapped around the lower part of the balloon . inflation was halted and the crew attempted to unwrap the arms . three hours later the arms were repositioned and inflation was ready to resume but the sun was already nearing the horizon and heating the solar balloon was no longer possible . the decision was made to cancel the mission . 12 arca decided to redesign the helen rocket to use two stages and a helium balloon instead . they named the rocket helen 2 . on april 27 2010 they performed an avionics test for the european lunar lander payload to be lifted by helen 2 rocket using a hot air balloon that lifted three arca members to 5 200 m altitude . on august 4 2010 a new attempt to launch the rocket was made but a construction error in the helium balloon caused it to rupture and the mission was aborted . 13 a new helium balloon was manufactured designed to carry only the second stage of helen 2 rocket . on october 1 2010 the rocket performed a successful flight to an altitude of 38 700 m reaching a maximum velocity of 2320 km h. upon atmospheric reentry the rocket capsule parachute failed to deploy and the capsule was lost at sea but the data was transmitted to the mission control center on 281 constanta ship and to the romanian air traffic services administration . 14 2011 2013 iar 111 aircraft executor engine and haas rocket family edit executor rocket engine testing installation after the difficulties encountered with the stratospheric balloons arca decided to change their approach to orbital launch for the google lunar x prize . they designed a supersonic rocket plane powered by a liquid fueled rocket engine using kerosene as fuel and liquid oxygen as oxydizer . 15 the aircraft initially named e 111 was renamed iar 111 after arca received permission from iar s.a. brasov to use the traditional iar designation for military and civilian aircraft constructed since 1925 . the aircraft was intended to fly to an altitude of 17.000 m and launch a heavily modified version of haas rocket named haas 2 . haas 2 was an air launched three stage orbital rocket intended to place a 200 kg payload into orbit . work on the plane structure began in late 2010 . by 2011 all the fiberglass molds for the aircraft were finished and one third of the aircraft structure was completed . the crew capsule escape system was tested on september 26 2011 when a mil mi 17 helicopter belonging to the special aviation unit dropped the capsule from an altitude of 700 m over the black sea . the emergency parachute deployed successfully and the capsule was recovered from the sea surface by the romanian coast guard . in 2012 arca decided to focus on the construction of the rocket engine of iar 111 aircraft . the engine named executor is made of composite materials has a thrust of 24 tons force 52 000 lbf and is turbopump fueled . it uses ablative cooling for the main chamber and nozzle where the outer layers of the composite material vaporize in contact with the high temperature exhaust mixture and prevent overheating . arca also presented a long term space program until 2025 that besides iar 111 envisioned a small scale orbital rocket haas 2c a suborbital manned rocket haas 2b and a medium scale manned orbital rocket super haas . 16 in march 2012 arca tested an extremely lightweight composite materials kerosene tank that is intended to be used for haas 2c rocket . 17 after intensifying obscure criticism in printed media and television from the romanian space agency rosa arca decided to send a public letter to the romanian prime minister to intervene in this matter . arca mentioned that the romanian space agency is in no position to criticize after the failure of their cubesat goliat recently launched with vega rocket . furthermore arca was private funded comparing with rosa that uses budget funding . 18 in june 2012 arca presented their haas 2c rocket in victoria square in bucharest in front of the romanian government palace . 19 the same year arca won a 1 200 000 contract with the european space agency to participate in the exomars program . named high altitude drop test the contract consisted in a series of stratospheric balloons drop tests to verify the structural integrity of the edm parachutes used in martian atmospheric deceleration . 20 on september 16 2013 arca performed the first successful flight in the exomars program lifting three presurised avionics containers over the black sea to an altitude of 24 400 m. 21 in november the concrete test stand for executor engine was completed . 2014 present airstrato and arca space corporation edit on february 10 they presented a high altitude unmanned aerial vehicle named airstrato that was meant to replace stratopsheric balloon usage for equipment testing and other near space missions . it was indend to be solar powered for extended endurance had 7 m length and 16 m wingspan with a takeoff weight of 230 kg . the aircraft first flew on february 28 . arca announced that if the development was successful they would consider developing a