Future Launchers Preparatory Programme

The Future Launchers Preparatory Programme, known as FLPP, is the European Space Agency's dedicated programme for advancing Europe's space transportation capabilities to space, in space and back from space. It supports the development and testing of new technologies and system concepts that will shape the next generations of European space transportation systems, from reusable launchers and in-space transportation to advanced propulsion. ESA explains that new rockets are developed against technology readiness levels from 1 to 9, and that its projects under the programme run in parallel, among them work on the reusable Prometheus rocket engine, which can be used on rockets including the reusable stage demonstrator Themis, and the Phoebus project, which developed a carbon-fibre propellant tank that could be used on Ariane 6 or other rockets.