University of Pretoria (UP) alumna Karishma Maharaj excitedly recalls the moment Payload Aerospace SL (PLD Space), the Spanish aerospace company that she is a business developer at, made history when it launched MIURA 1, marking Europe’s first fully private rocket launch.

“In the early hours of Saturday morning on 7 October 2023, as those of us who were not part of the launch team gathered at our headquarters to watch the livestream of the event, sure, I was nervous, but perhaps not as much as many of the other newly minted PLD employees,” Maharaj says.

However, she says, she was a relatively old hand at this – as she had previously watched the MIURA 1 prototype qualification test in September 2022 and the two previous MIURA 1 launch attempts.

“I had become a pro at managing my emotions, although I was well aware of the consequences of both good and bad outcomes for the future of PLD Space,” Maharaj says. “As soon as the switch to auto-sequence occurred at the T-2 minute mark, however, all my apparent self-possession vanished.

“Before take-off, no one breathed,” she continues. “We had been here before, just before the summer, when a timing issue with an umbilical connection initiated an auto-abort. But then, the rocket began to climb. I screamed. We all did. Then it needed to clear the launchpad; [if it did not], both the rocket and the supporting infrastructure could be destroyed, which would put PLD Space in a precarious situation. The rocket continued to climb. I jumped up and down. I cried – the ugly cry reserved for life-changing moments.”

MIURA 1, which was launched from the El Arenosillo Experimentation Centre and operated by the National Institute for Aerospace Technology, is designed to be reusable, and makes use of an aerobrake and parachute system, which allows it to land safely in the sea, where it is recovered by a ship. The advantage of a reusable rocket is that it reduces the environmental impact.

“Less material is wasted and less energy, water and other resources are consumed during manufacturing,” Maharaj explains. “It also has a direct impact on our cost structure, since increasing the number of times a rocket or rocket stage is reused reduces the cost of manufacturing. This means higher gross margins per flight.”

She explains that MIURA 1’s existence will attract more money and talent to the Spanish space industry, adding that as it grows, so will its space infrastructure, which will allow the country to grow its digital asset base – this means more satellites, more connectivity and more information. It will also be able to stake its claim on newly discovered space resources, such as land and minerals, and influence international space law, which is still in a stage of relative infancy.

“This is a major milestone for PLD Space,” Maharaj says. “It shows the world, government, investors, customers, current and future employees that we are a serious launch company that delivers in a brutal industry.”

She says this is a capital-intensive, technically complex venture.

“Following this achievement, we expect to raise €150 million (about R3 billion) in a series C round to help us complete the development of MIURA 5. This will be our commercial rocket – the one we will actually generate revenues from, which will be launched in 2025 from Kourou, in French Guiana. The launch of MIURA 1 will also help us to attract the required talent to complete the project on time.”

Maharaj obtained a Bachelor of Engineering in 2011, an Honours in Chemical Engineering in 2012 and Master of Engineering in Chemical Engineering in 2013, all cum laude, from UP, and says she chose to study and further her studies at the University because of the unparalleled engineering programme.

“Leaving UP with three degrees under my belt and several lifelong friendships gave me the confidence to make increasingly bigger jumps in my life – be it to foreign countries or industries,” she says. 

“Additionally, having lived in South Africa, Singapore and now in Europe, and having worked in dramatically different industries, in oil and space, I have realised that the engineering education received at UP is indeed world class; it has taught me to seek to decompose any problem into its fundamentals before trying to formulate a solution.” 

Reminiscing on the good old UP days, Maharaj says she dearly misses the jacaranda trees in spring, and if there’s one song that takes her back to her motherland, it’s ‘Dagdronk’ by Fokofpolisiekar.

She hopes to be fluent in Spanish and to increase her understanding of the fascinating industry that she is still relatively new to in the next coming years.

“I hope to be in French Guiana for the launch of MIURA 5, supporting my customers, team and once again, being part of history.”