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Rocket Report: FAA eyes more Starbase traffic; India's Skyroot snares US customer
The pioneering reusable upper stage for Stoke Space’s Nova rocket ships out for testing.
Welcome to Edition 9.15 of the Rocket Report! The launch I’m most looking forward to in the next few weeks is that of Japan’s Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission. MMX is one of the marquee space science missions launching this year, and it’s set to leave Earth as soon as Monday (US time) aboard a Japanese H3 rocket. The spacecraft will visit Phobos and Deimos, the two asteroid-like moons of Mars, deploying a rover and collecting specimens for return to Earth in 2031. Exploration at its finest.
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.
Reflect Orbital looks to India for launch capacity. California-based Reflect Orbital, the startup attempting to offer sunlight on-demand with in-space mirrors, announced the purchase of two launches Wednesday from Indian launcher Skyroot Aerospace, Payload Space reports. One of the launches will use Skyroot’s Vikram-1 rocket, which became the first privately developed Indian rocket to reach orbit in July. The other will fly on an upgraded rocket called the Vikram-1U.
Shining a light … Reflect Orbital plans to launch its first satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare next year. The company’s business model involves flying a constellation of some 50,000 mirrors in orbit to beam sunlight to the ground for power generation and illumination. The FCC approved Reflect’s first in-space mirror satellite earlier this year. The company’s selection of India’s Skyroot also shines a light on what satellite operators fear is a coming under-supply of launch capacity in the United States as SpaceX phases out its Falcon 9 rocket in favor of the much larger, but relatively unproven, Starship.
LEAP targets smallsat launch market. A Colorado rocket startup named LEAP is aiming to enter the market for dedicated small-satellite launches in 2028 as growing demand for access to orbit creates new opportunities for smaller rockets, Space News reports. LEAP’s Bighorn rocket is designed for an initial payload capacity of 320 pounds (145 kilograms) to low-Earth orbit, with a first orbital launch slated for 2028. Bighorn is sized for dedicated launch services, with a single-engine booster stage and a kick stage named Cottontail for orbit insertion.
Rockets of mass production … LEAP says its Bighorn rocket is engineered for mass production. The company’s new factory, located in a Denver suburb, will support initial production of six Bighorn vehicles per year, with capacity to scale to two per month. “We know how to build remarkable vehicles. The challenge is building enough of them fast enough,” said Chris Beckman, CEO of LEAP, in a statement last month announcing the company’s new headquarters. LEAP launched a smaller suborbital rocket, named Bullfrog, for the first time in May, reaching an altitude of approximately 130,000 feet (40 kilometers).
Neutron debut delayed. Rocket Lab announced Wednesday that its Neutron launch vehicle won’t fly until 2027, citing an issue discovered during manufacturing of the rocket’s carbon composite structures, Ars reports. The announcement was public confirmation of what nearly everyone inside Rocket Lab and the wider space industry already knew. The most recent official update from Rocket Lab in August suggested the company still held hope of delivering the first Neutron rocket to its launch pad at Wallops Island, Virginia, before the end of this year, a schedule that would have almost certainly pushed the first flight into 2027.
Altered carbon … Rocket Lab’s statement Wednesday about Neutron’s schedule suggests the company is still struggling with manufacturing the rocket’s large booster stage. Neutron’s