On February 16th, Jesús T. Pastor, Rector of the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) of Elche, presented the July award of the “Important Awards” from the newspaper Información to PLD Space, a company located in the UMH Science Park. Co-founder Raúl Verdú accepted the award during the gala held at the ADDA auditorium in Alicante. Also in attendance were Eleazar González, Head of Propulsion, and Juny Crespo, Project Manager.

Among PLD Space’s achievements are the successful completion of the first test of a liquid-fueled rocket engine developed and manufactured entirely in Spain, and the signing of a contract with the European Commission to conduct tests on experimental liquid-fueled rocket engines for the German Aerospace Center. Furthermore, in the last year, the company has secured €6.7 million in funding with support from private companies such as the multinational technology firm GMV, as well as institutions including the European Space Agency (ESA), the CDTI (Center for the Development of Industrial Technology), ENISA (National Institute for Space Research), and SUMA Teruel, among others.

In addition to the PLD Space team, those attending the gala included the Vice-Rector for Planning at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH), Fernando Borrás; the Vice-Rector for Information Technologies, Federico Botella; the Managing Director of the UMH Foundation, Tonia Salinas; the Dean of the Faculty of Social and Legal Sciences at the UMH in Elche, Fernando Miró; and the University’s Director of Communications, José Juan López.