---
title: "Avio Scales Back Its Rocket Demonstrator Program as FD1 Enters Ground Testing"
id: 219086
type: "post"
slug: "avio-scales-back-its-rocket-demonstrator-program-as-fd1-enters-ground-testing"
author: "NSE"
published: "2026-11-06T18:58:58+00:00"
modified: "2026-11-06T18:59:07+00:00"
canonical: "https://newspaceeconomy.ca/2026/11/06/avio-scales-back-its-rocket-demonstrator-program-as-fd1-enters-ground-testing/"
markdown_url: "https://newspaceeconomy.ca/2026/11/06/avio-scales-back-its-rocket-demonstrator-program-as-fd1-enters-ground-testing.md"
description: "Avio assembled the first rocket in Italy’s Space Transportation System demonstrator program, but development delays changed the milestone expected in 2026…"
language: "en-US"
category:
  - "European Space Sector"
  - "Launch Market"
  - "Space Economy"
post_tag:
  - "European Space Agency"
  - "European Space Industry"
  - "European Space Launch"
  - "Rocket Development"
  - "Space Transportation System"
---

# Avio Scales Back Its Rocket Demonstrator Program as FD1 Enters Ground Testing

![](https://i0.wp.com/newspaceeconomy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/a979c658-518c-4c0b-9858-d603a81c5b96.png?resize=696%2C464&ssl=1)

Avio assembled the first rocket in Italy’s Space Transportation System demonstrator program, but development delays changed the milestone expected in 2026. The original contract called for the first vehicle’s flight program to finish by November. Avio’s September update instead identified completion of ground testing by year-end as the next milestone for the assembled vehicle, known as FD1.

The change followed a review by the [European Space Agency](https://www.esa.int/), which implements the program. Avio reported delays in March and disclosed in its September 10 half-year report that the agency and company had agreed to reduce both the work covered by the contract and its funding. [European Spaceflight’s November 6 account](https://europeanspaceflight.com/avio-scales-back-demonstrator-programme-amid-technical-challenges/) traces the revision through those disclosures.

## **What the Two Demonstrators Were Designed to Test**

The original program called for two different rockets. FD1 was the simpler vehicle, with a single stage powered by Avio’s MR10 engine. Avio is developing that engine for the upper stage of Vega E. The proposed second demonstrator would have had two stages and used both the MR10 and the larger MR60, an engine under development through a separate project.

The engines burn methane with liquid oxygen. Methane supplies the fuel, and the vehicle carries its own oxygen to sustain combustion as it climbs above the atmosphere. Testing a complete rocket brings the engine together with the tanks, plumbing, controls, and structure that support it. Avio’s [integration milestone](https://europeanspaceflight.com/avio-completes-integration-of-fd1-rocket-demonstrator/) referred to assembly of those systems into the first vehicle.

## **The Original Funding and Launch Site**

Italy awarded €217.5 million for the program in June 2022. The original allocation combined €64 million from Italy’s European Union-funded National Recovery and Resilience Plan, €36 million from its National Complementary Plan, and €117.5 million in additional Italian public funding. The September agreement reduced that original commitment.

Launch preparations centered on the Italian defense ministry’s Salto di Quirra range on the east coast of Sardinia. Environmental documents filed in March described a temporary complex that would be dismantled after the flight and the site restored. For the assembled FD1 itself, the revised 2026 schedule focused on tests on the ground.