Rocket Report: Spacex Says No Thanks To Military Launches…
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Welcome to Edition 9.16 of the Rocket Report! Lots of SpaceX-related news this week including a couple of Thursday shockers. In one story, the company told the US Space Force thanks, but no thanks after being offered three military launch contracts. Then, on the civil space side of things, SpaceX’s Starship may required up to 22 refuelings to support a lunar landing, a NASA safety panel said.
As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don’t want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site). Each report will include information on small-, medium-, and heavy-lift rockets as well as a quick look ahead at the next three launches on the calendar.
Miura 5 getting closer to launch. PLD Space says its Miura 5 rocket, due to undertake its inaugural launch next year, is nearing final integration, Aviation Week reports. The rocket is one of three Miura 5s the company has already manufactured, with the other two designed to qualify key system elements, CEO Raúl Torres said in an October 19 program update. PLD Space now targets a first flight of the small-lift vehicle before mid-2027.
Fully integrated stage … “Manufacturing these three vehicles has allowed our teams to work continuously across different stages of production and integration, applying the lessons learned from each qualification campaign directly to the launch vehicle,” Torres said. One Miura 5 second stage is now fully integrated to kick off system-level testing under representative operating conditions. The second stage is at PLD’s Teruel test facility for its qualification campaign, including wet dress rehearsal and a static hot-fire test.
Reaction Dynamics seeks to raise $350 million. One of three prominent Canadian launch startups, Reaction Dynamics, said it is seeking to raise $350 million to grow its staff from 68 to more than 350 people, spaceQ reports. The company is developing the small-lift Aurora rocket, which Reaction Dynamics hopes will reach orbit in 2028. Reaction Dynamics also announced plans to build a medium-lift rocket, Borealis, for a debut by 2031.
You’ve got the aurora, and the borealis … With a lift capacity of 6 tons to low-Earth orbit, Borealis would carry a little under half of the advertised payload capacity of Rocket Lab’s Neutron vehicle. “We founded Reaction Dynamics because we believe Canada should be able to reach orbit on its own terms,” the company’s founder and chief executive, Bachar Elzein, said. “Aurora is how we get to orbit in 2028. Borealis is how we deliver sovereign access to orbit, at scale, by 2031.” Both of the dates appear to be highly aspirational, but we wish them luck.
Rocket Report
Keep up with the latest in space exploration and rocket launches.
Rocket Lab sets next Electron launch date. After 97 launches of Electron, it is not exactly news that Rocket Lab is preparing for its 98th launch of the vehicle. The mission, launching three HAWK satellites for the constellation operator HawkEye 360, is due to launch as early as 07:00 UTC on Friday, October 23.
So why are you writing about it? … Two reasons. First of all, it’s worth noting that Rocket Lab continues to be only the second company to develop and frequently fly a purely commercial rocket. Secondly, we love the name of the mission, “We’re Not Hawking Around.” Kudos to the Rocket Lab team for keeping launch fun and fresh, even after moving through dozens of launches.
SpaceX says no thanks to Space Force launches. The Space Force recently tried to book rides for three future satellite missions, but SpaceX declined to offer its services, Politico reports. No other rocket companies offered to take them either, the publication reported. A top Space Force official, Brig. Gen. Eric Zarybnisky, the acting portfolio acquisition executive, acknowledged growing pains for the government and space industry as demand for rockets increases. “Temporarily, there are some things we’ll need to work through, again, as we get new providers flying,” he said. SpaceX has been declining to sign new Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch contracts for all kinds of customers.
No one else has capacity … The three Space Force missions that didn’t find a ride were listed through the National Security Space Launch initiative. Two of the missions were for the Space Development Agency. The agency is a branch of the Space Force that’s building a network of hundreds of military satellites in low-Earth orbit to provide expanded data services, and missile warning and tracking capabilities. Other potential launch providers, United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin, are both working through setbacks with their launch vehicles. Zarybnisky remained optimistic that Blue Origin and ULA will work through their technical problems and that new competitors will get up and running in time.
Who will win the medium-lift launch race? It has been 13 years since the debut of a new medium-lift rocket in the United States, the Antares vehicle developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation. Nearly a decade and a half later, there is a new generation of medium-lift vehicles coming online, and they are starkly different from Antares, which had not just Russian engines but a core stage manufactured in Ukraine.
Which comes first … In a new article, Ars updates the status of four medium-lift rockets under development in the United States: Stoke Space’s Nova, Relativity Space’s Terran R, Rocket Lab’s Neutron, and the Eclipse vehicle being built by Firefly and Northrop Grumman. The publication also (somewhat hazardously) predicts the order in which the four rockets will make their debut.
Japanese rocket launches historic Phobos mission. Japan launched a $578 million mission Monday on a five-year expedition to land on the largest moon of Mars and retrieve samples for return to Earth, Ars reports. The robotic Martian Moons eXploration mission, known as MMX, lifted off at 3:41 pm EDT Monday (4:41 am Japan Standard Time Tuesday) from Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan.
This has been tried before … The MMX spacecraft rode into orbit atop a 207-foot-tall (63-meter) H3 rocket, Japan’s flagship launch vehicle. The rocket assigned to MMX debuted a new souped-up configuration with four strap-on solid rocket boosters, full-throttle main engines, and an extended payload shroud to accommodate the demands of Japan’s heaviest and most ambitious interplanetary mission to date. MMX is not the first mission to attempt a sample return from Phobos. Russia’s Phobos-Grunt sample return mission failed soon after launch in 2011, before it could set off for Mars. (submitted by tsunam)
Chinese rocket debris found in Midwest. In September, a Chinese rocket took off from a remote spaceport in the Gobi Desert, released 10 satellites into orbit, then reignited its engine and put itself on a trajectory to rain down debris over the American Midwest, Ars reports. The rocket’s flight on September 15 lasted between 75 and 80 minutes, and it came down without completing a full orbit of the Earth. Social media posts at the time showed streaks of fiery debris falling from the sky, heading north over Kansas toward Minnesota. The overnight spectacle was also visible on the western horizon from Wisconsin.
A surprising find … The exact time, location, and direction of the debris allowed experts to connect it to the launch of a Zhuque-2E rocket, a medium-lift vehicle built by a Chinese company called LandSpace. The rocket had launched from Dongfeng, a commercial launch zone co-located with the military-run Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, less than two hours before. The incident was largely forgotten until the last few days, when a farmer in rural Minnesota discovered a circular metal object about 11 feet in diameter lay amid the forest of corn stalks.
Arianespace targets Nov. 23 return for Ariane 6. Arianespace has announced that the next Ariane 6 launch will take place no earlier than November 23, marking the rocket’s return to flight after ground testing reportedly revealed an issue with one of its turbopumps, European Spaceflight reports. The flight will carry 36 Amazon Leo satellites aboard an Ariane 64, the rocket’s four-booster configuration. It will be the fifth Ariane 6 flight of 2026 and the tenth since the rocket’s inaugural flight in July 2024.
Situation is on track … Arianespace’s new announcement s a report from French newspaper La Tribune, published a day earlier, claiming ArianeGroup had resolved an anomaly affecting a liquid hydrogen turbopump that had disrupted the rocket’s launch schedule. According to the report, the anomaly was first detected during an engine acceptance test shortly before the start of summer. Asked by European Spaceflight to comment on the report, an ArianeGroup spokesperson declined to address it directly and instead pointed to the newly announced launch date. “The next launch has been announced today, so the situation is on track.”
How many Starships will be required for a lunar landing? On Thursday, the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel held its quarterly meeting, during which panel member Charlie Precourt (a former NASA astronaut) spoke about risks associated with the Artemis Program and landing humans on the Moon, Ars reports. One of these is the number of refuelings required to support a Starship lunar landing.
Uncertainty remains … “With respect to Artemis IV, however, we’ve got a large number of firsts that reduce the lihood of mission success,” Precourt said. “We need to keep our eyes on numerous required fuelings for the lander. I think the last estimate is around 22 flights.” In response to this, SpaceX founder Elon Musk replied that NASA’s safety panel estimate was not accurate. “That’s way too high,” Musk said. “Actual number will be more 6 to 8.”
SpaceX will attempt a rocket and upper stage catch. It has been a little more than three weeks since the 14th test flight of the massive Starship rocket, which largely went well despite some issues with the Raptor rocket engine. SpaceX has gleaned enough data from that test to attempt a catch of both the Super Heavy first stage of the rocket and the Starship upper stage on the next flight, Ars reports. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said he believes success is “more ly than not” for these attempts, but he added the company is hardware rich if there are failures.
Working with the FAA … Both catches would happen at the company’s launch site in South Texas, Starbase. SpaceX is currently targeting November for this 15th test flight. One of the big hurdles is regulatory, as the Starship vehicle must return to the launch site over land, including northern Mexico. “We have had significant constructive engagement with the FAA, and we expect the license for our Flight 15 to include return to launch site and tower catch for both stages,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said.
Blue Origin goes bigger on New Glenn. Blue Origin announced a major expansion of its already considerable Florida launch facilities last Friday with the intent of eventually flying more than 100 rockets a year from there, Ars reports. The company said it would add two launch pads for the New Glenn rocket, in addition to two already under construction at Cape Canaveral. The company is also investing heavily in a new manufacturing facility that will produce up to 150 upper stages for a larger variant of the New Glenn rocket.
More missions … The company also plans to procure two additional landing ships to catch and return the first stage of the New Glenn rocket (it currently has one, named Jacklyn). Finally, Blue Origin said it would add a new customer integration facility, built in conjunction with the US Space Force, that will feature four payload bays to process multiple missions at the same time. “These investments are centered on one goal: building the capacity to support more missions, more reliably, and more efficiently,” said Ian Richardson, senior vice president of operations at Blue Origin.
Next three launches
October 23: Electron | We’re Not Hawking Around | Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand | 07:00 UTC
October 23: Long March 6A | Unknown payload | Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, China | 10:15 UTC
October 23: Long March 4B | Unknown payload | Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China | 19:25 UTC
Eric Berger Senior Space Editor
Eric Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from astronomy to private space to NASA policy, and author of two books: Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX; and Reentry, on the development of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon. A certified meteorologist, Eric lives in Houston.
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Arstechnica.com