Lower-cost rocket engine wins first national Space Challenge award
Edinburgh venture developing simpler engine to cut cost and complexity of launch technology
SCOTTISH innovators developing a lower-cost rocket engine designed to be easier to manufacture have won the inaugural Converge Space Challenge.
Edinburgh-based Pleiades Dynamics, led by University of Edinburgh researcher Stephen Spice, secured the award for ASTEROPE, an early-stage bi-propellant rocket engine project focused on reducing the cost and complexity involved in developing launch technology.
The company is developing ASTEROPE as an affordable, easily manufactured engine using off-the-shelf hardware and ablative cooling techniques, with the aim of powering its first generation of test vehicle.
Stephen Spice, of Pleiades Dynamics, said: “At the heart of what we’re looking to do is bring more usability and openness to the Scottish and UK space sectors. We want to do that by making our engines as cost efficient and accessible as possible.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to have won. We didn’t expect to get to the finals, so we were just happy to be here. Winning the Space Challenge is a huge boost for us as we continue developing the technology and working towards making access to space more open and affordable.”
Pleiades says its approach is intended to lower both cost and complexity by using readily available components and manufacturing methods suited to rapid, hardware-led development.
Pleiades’ success comes in the first year of Converge’s Space Challenge, a new collaboration with Space Scotland, The Higgs Centre for Innovation, Scottish Enterprise and Heriot-Watt University.
The new category is designed to give emerging founders working in space technology access to business support, funding and industry connections while their ideas are still at an early stage of development.
Adam Kosterka, Executive Director of Converge, said: “Pleiades Dynamics is exactly the kind of ambitious venture the Space Challenge was created to support, taking a technically challenging idea and exploring how it can be developed into something with clear practical and commercial potential.
“Scotland has a growing space sector, so introducing a dedicated challenge allows us to give emerging entrepreneurs the support and connections they need at a stage when those can make a significant difference.
“As the first winner, Pleiades Dynamics also demonstrates the ambition behind the new challenge and the potential for university-linked ideas to contribute to the future of the sector.”
The Space Challenge builds on Converge’s work with staff, students and recent graduates across Scotland’s universities, helping founders develop the commercial skills and connections needed to turn promising ideas into sustainable businesses.
The programme combines practical business support and training with equity-free funding, while connecting emerging founders with expertise and networks beyond the university environment.
Formed in 2011, Converge has supported more than 1,000 aspiring academic entrepreneurs who have gone on to establish more than 500 companies.
Businesses taking part in the Converge programme have a three-year survival rate of 86%, significantly above the national average. This reflects both the strength of innovation emerging from universities and the quality, support and rigour of the programme.
Building on that milestone, Converge is preparing to launch Converge 2.0 in 2027, an evolved offering which will broaden its support and introduce more tailored, sector-specific pathways for ventures at an advanced stage of development.
The Space Challenge reflects that direction by providing more focused support for entrepreneurs working in a specialist sector where developing an idea can require significant technical expertise, industry connections and time.
The Converge Awards will remain at the heart of the programme as it enters its next chapter, continuing to provide a national platform for university founders seeking to turn new technologies into ambitious and sustainable businesses.