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In 2007 ARCA won two governmental contracts with the Research Ministry for a suborbital rocket and a solar balloon. The [[Romanian Space Agency]], the [[University of Bucharest]] and other Romanian institutions were subcontractors to ARCA for these projects.
In early 2008 ARCA joined the [[Google Lunar X Prize]] competition and designed the Haas orbital launcher.<ref>{{citation | work = NBC News| title = Teams shoot for the Moon | url =http://www.nbcnews.com/id/23284596/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/teams-shoot-moon/| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20130225050041/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/23284596/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/teams-shoot-moon| url-status =dead| archive-date =February 25, 2013|access-date=2014-03-31}}</ref> Their lunar rover was named European Lunar Lander and used a [[monopropellant]] rocket engine for landing and hovering. Haas was a three-stage orbital rocket powered by hybrid engines using a bitumen-based fuel and hydrogen peroxide as oxidizer. It was supposed to be launched from 18,000 m carried by the largest solar balloon ever constructed, having a volume of 2 million cubic meters.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.arcaspace.com/en/program_haas.htm |title=HAAS |access-date=2014-12-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140331222859/http://www.arcaspace.com/en/program_haas.htm |archive-date=2014-03-31 }}</ref> For the Haas rocket, they created a three-stage much smaller demonstrator called Helen that was intended to test technologies and operation. The Helen rocket was intentionally not aerodynamically stabilized, being intended to use a technique based on the pendulum rocket fallacy.<ref name="program_helen">{{cite web|url=http://www.arcaspace.com/en/program_helen.htm|title=Helen – ARCA|website=www.arcaspace.com|access-date=11 August 2017|archive-date=12 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170812013103/http://www.arcaspace.com/en/program_helen.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Romanian bank [[BRD – Groupe Société Générale]] awarded ARCA a 300,000 euro sponsorship for their activities. Romanian cosmonaut Dumitru Prunariu highly praised ARCA's achievements and noted their ability to efficiently utilize private funds.<ref>{{citation | publisher = Mediafax| title = Prunariu about the first Romanian rocket in space: "An original and feasible project" | url =http://www.mediafax.ro/stiinta-sanatate/prunariu-despre-prima-racheta-romaneasca-in-spatiu-un-proiect-fezabil-si-original-4877842}}</ref> In 2009 ARCA performed a series of engine tests using the Stabilo rocket engine in order to validate the design for the Helen rocket.
The first attempt to launch the Helen rocket took place on November 14, 2009. Romanian Naval Forces participated with the NSSL 281 Constanta ship, the Venus divers ship, the Fulgerul fast boat and two other fast craft boats. For this mission, ARCA constructed a massive 150,000 cubic meter solar balloon, approximately five times as large as their previous balloon. After the balloon began inflating, the mission crew discovered that the balloon inflation arms were wrapped around the lower part of the balloon. Inflation was halted and the crew attempted to unwrap the arms. Three hours later the arms were repositioned and inflation was ready to resume but the sun was already nearing the horizon, and heating the solar balloon was no longer possible. The decision was made to cancel the mission.<ref name="misiunea_3" />
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