PARIS, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Franco-German space startup

The Exploration Co said on Monday it had raised $160 million in

new funds to help it develop a reusable cargo capsule known as

Nyx.

The company said the Series B funding, led by Balderton

Capital and early-stage investment fund Plural, was the largest

of its type for space in Europe.

It comes six months after the European Space Agency awarded

preliminary contracts to develop cargo return services to The

Exploration Co and the larger and more established

Franco-Italian space company Thales Alenia Space

.

The vehicles will deliver supplies to the International

Space Station by 2030 and could be used for any future space

stations, the agency said in May.

Although initially conceived as cargo vehicles, they could

ultimately be modified to send crew into space.

ESA's 22 nations agreed in November last year to invite

private funding for a vehicle to ferry cargo to and from space.

The agency's director general, Josef Aschbacher, has warned

Europe against falling behind on space as it did on IT and has

described the future plane as a "first step" towards eventually

developing a standalone European human spaceflight programme.

In July, The Exploration Co placed a small test capsule

called Nyx Bikini on the inaugural test mission of Europe's new

Ariane 6 launcher. But the test craft became stranded in orbit

when Ariane's third stage failed to deploy correctly.

The Exploration Co said it was on track to launch its next

mission, a mid-size capsule called "Mission Possible," in 2025.

ESA said last week it was postponing the second flight of

Ariane 6, and its first formal commercial mission, until

February 2025 from December this year.