Europe has been working on a reusable orbital vehicle called the Space Rider. The intent is to place payloads in orbit using the smaller Vega-C rocket and be able to bring them back to Earth. The vehicle itself would be reusable, but would have a reconfigurable payload bay. The Space Rider grew out of the Intermediate Experimental Vehicle (IXV) program and will be able to carry 800 kg of payload. On the demo flight, ESA is focusing on earth observing technologies, but pharmaceutical companies and others are interested in flying payloads on the Space Rider.
An unmanned reusable orbital vehicle like the Space Rider is the same in concept as the Boeing X-37B that the US Air Force operates. This is a reusable space plane launched into orbit on Atlas V rockets. The first orbital flight of the X-37B was in 2010 and the USAF operates two of them. Sometimes they are left in orbit for over a year before they return to Earth. What the X-37B does is actually classified. The X-37B is considerably larger than the the planned Space Rider: the Vega C rocket can only place into orbit a maximum of 1/3 the mass of the X-37B.
The Europeans and Americans are not the only ones interested in the capability the X-37B and Space Rider represent. The Chinese are reportedly working on a version of their own. The effort may be what is called the Shenlong that has been seen in captive carry tests.
ESA targets 2021 for Space Rider demo flight
https://spacenews.com/esa-targets-2021-for-space-rider-demo-flight/
Space Rider
https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Transportation/Space_Rider
Vega (rocket)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vega_(rocket)
Boeing X-37
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37
China Wants Its Own X-37B Spaceplane
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/china-wants-its-own-x-37b-spaceplane-33887
Experts: Shenlong May Be China’s Response to U.S. X-37B
https://spacenews.com/experts%E2%80%82shenlong-may-be-chinas-response-to-us-x-37b/