Space

There’s a lot of big talk about sovereign launch—who is doing something about it?

Commercial space, launch, rockets, Science, Space, space policy / 9u50fv / February 17, 2026

As alliances fray, these are the nations investing in sovereign access to space.

PLD Space shows off a model of its Miura 1 suborbital rocket during a 2021 presentation on the esplanade of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid. Credit: Oscar Gonzalez/NurPhoto via Getty Images

No one will supplant American and Chinese dominance in the space launch arena anytime soon, but several longtime US allies now see sovereign access to space as a national security imperative.

Taking advantage of private launch initiatives already underway within their own borders, several middle and regional powers have approved substantial government funding for commercial startups to help them reach the launch pad. Australia, Canada, Germany, and Spain are among the nations that currently lack the ability to independently put their own satellites into orbit but which are now spending money to establish a domestic launch industry. Others talk a big game but haven’t committed the cash to back up their ambitions.

The moves are part of a wider trend among US allies to increase defense spending amid strained relations with the Trump administration. Tariffs, trade wars, and threats to invade the territory of a NATO ally have changed the tune of many foreign leaders. In Europe, there’s even talk of fielding a nuclear deterrent independent of the nuclear umbrella provided by the US military.

Trump’s relationship with Elon Musk, the head of the world’s leading space launch company, has further soured foreign appetite for using the United States for launch services. Today, that usually means choosing to pay Musk’s SpaceX.

Commercial satellite companies will still choose the cheapest, most reliable path to space, of course. This means SpaceX will win the overwhelming majority of commercial launch contracts put up for global competition. But there’s a captive market for many satellite projects, especially those with government backing. US government satellites typically launch on US rockets, just as Chinese satellites fly on Chinese rockets.

The picture is more opaque in Europe. The European Space Agency and the European Union prefer to launch their satellites on European rockets, but that’s not always possible. ESA and the EU launched several key satellite missions on SpaceX rockets while waiting on the debut of Europe’s long-delayed Ariane 6 rocket. The Ariane 6 is now launching reliably, ending Europe’s reliance on SpaceX.

Many European nations have their own satellite projects. Historically, their preference for launching on European rockets has not been as strong as it is for pan-European programs managed by ESA and the EU. So it has never been unusual to see a British, German, Spanish, or Italian satellite launching on a foreign rocket.

This posture is starting to change. All four of these nations have invested in homegrown rockets in recent years. Germany made the biggest splash last year when the government announced $41 billion (35 billion euros) in space spending over the next five years. “Satellite networks today are an Achilles’ heel of modern societies. Whoever attacks them paralyzes entire nations,” said Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defense minister, during the announcement.

Every satellite network needs a launch pad and a rocket. In late 2024, the German federal government made more than $110 million (95 million euros) available to three German launch startups: Isar Aerospace, Rocket Factory Augsburg, and HyImpulse. All three are also backed by private funding, with Isar leading the pack with approximately $650 million (550 million euros) from investors. None have reached orbit yet. For comparison, Rocket Lab, the world’s most successful launch startup not founded by a billionaire, raised $148 million (approximately $200 million adjusted for inflation) before reaching orbit in 2018. Nearly all of it came from private sources.

Rocket Lab, which operates the Electron small satellite launcher seen in this image, is the most successful modern commercial launch startup not founded by a billionaire. Rocket Lab went public in 2021, three years after its first successful orbital launch. Credit: Rocket Lab

In 2023, the Italian government committed more than $300 million in support of Avio, the company that already builds and operates the Vega satellite launcher. Avio is based in Italy and is using the funds to develop methane propulsion, among other things.

With help from other ESA member states, Italy is one of the countries that already has a rocket made largely of domestic or European components. The United States, Russia, China, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, India, Israel, Iran, North Korea, South Korea, and New Zealand have also successfully launched satellites using their own rockets.

The UK no longer possesses such a capability, and France’s access to space is currently tied to the Ariane rocket, a pan-European program. France, like Italy, is pouring money into domestic launch startups to buttress the Ariane program.

Let’s look at the countries not among the list of active launching states that have committed substantial public funds to join (or rejoin) the club. To the best of our ability, we list these nations in the order of how much they are currently investing in sovereign launch programs.

Germany

Germany is probably closest to bringing a new commercial rocket into service. Isar Aerospace, Europe’s most well-funded launch startup, made its first orbital launch attempt last year from a spaceport in Norway. The company’s Spectrum rocket failed moments after liftoff, but Isar is readying a second rocket for another test flight as soon as next month. Rocket Factory Augsburg and HyImpulse, Germany’s other two launch startups with significant funding, currently trail Isar in the race to orbit.

In a space safety and security strategy released last year, Germany’s defense ministry included access to space among its lines of effort. The ministry said it aims to develop “sufficient responsive launch transport capacity to ensure national and European strategic independence in all payload classes and transport scenarios.”

In addition to the German government’s $110 million commitment to Isar, RFA, and HyImpulse, Germany is the leading contributor to ESA’s European Launcher Challenge program, which is designed to funnel money into multiple European rocket startups. Germany is the only European country with two companies—Isar and RFA—participating in the challenge. ESA member states approved nearly $1.1 billion (902 million euros) for the challenge last year. Germany is providing about 40 percent of the money and directing most of it to Isar and RFA.

Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum rocket lifts off from Andøya Spaceport, Norway, on March 30, 2025. Credit: Isar Aerospace/Brady Kenniston/NASASpaceflight.com

Spain

The government of Spain is the second-largest contributor to ESA’s European Launcher Challenge, with $200 million (169 million euros) unlocked to support PLD Space, the country’s leading launch startup. PLD Space is developing a small satellite launcher named Miura 5, which the company says will begin demonstration flights later this year. PLD Space’s most recent private fundraising round was in 2024, when the company reported raising more than $140 million (120 million euros) in total investment. ESA’s European Launcher Challenge will more than double this figure. Apart from the ESA challenge, Spain’s government provided more than $47 million (40.5 million euros) to PLD Space in 2024 through the PERTE Aerospace initiative, established to support independent Spanish access to space.

The Spanish government called access to space “one of Spain’s key areas of focus.” In a statement from November, Spain’s science ministry wrote, “PLD Space has been supported by the Spanish government from the beginning with Miura 1, the first suborbital rocket.”

“We have supported PLD Space at the national level until now,” said Diana Morant, Spain’s science minister. “We will now also do so through ESA so that our launcher, a European and Spanish brand, is part of that family of launchers planned for the future.”

United Kingdom

The UK’s position on this list should carry an asterisk following the collapse of the Scottish launch company Orbex. More than a decade into its run, Orbex entered insolvency proceedings last week after “fundraising, merger and acquisition opportunities had all concluded unsuccessfully.” Orbex never made it far on the road to space, despite raising $175 million (£129 million) from private and public investors. Despite its failure, Orbex was by far the most well-capitalized UK launch company. Skyrora, another Scottish launch startup, has expressed interest in buying Orbex’s assets, including land for a privately developed spaceport.

Early last year, the UK government announced a direct investment of more than $27 million (£20 million) to support the development of Orbex’s small satellite launcher. That was followed in November with the UK government’s $170 million (144 million euro) contribution to ESA’s European Launcher Challenge program. UK officials likely saw Orbex’s pending collapse and left nearly 80 percent of the challenge funding unallocated. It remains to be seen how the UK will divide its remaining budget for the launcher challenge.

Orbex released images showing structural elements of its Prime small satellite launcher in “near-flight configuration” after entering insolvency proceedings earlier this month. Credit: Orbex

Canada

In November, Canada’s government announced an investment of approximately $130 million (182.6 million Canadian dollars) for sovereign launch capability. The initiative “seeks to accelerate the advancement of Canadian-designed space launch vehicles and supporting technologies,” the government said in the announcement. The goal is to develop the capability to launch Canadian payloads from Canadian soil with “light lift” rockets by 2028. More than half the funding will support a launch challenge in which the government will offer grants over three years to selected participants who must meet predetermined milestones to win prizes.

Several Canadian startups, such as Maritime Launch Services, Reaction Dynamics, and NordSpace, are working on commercial satellite launchers, but none appear close to making an orbital launch attempt. The Canadian government’s announcement last year came days after MDA Space, the largest established space company in Canada, announced its own multimillion-dollar investment in Maritime Launch Services. Eventually, Canada plans to launch a second challenge to foster the development of a larger medium-lift rocket.

Australia

There’s just one launch startup in Australia with any chance of putting a satellite into orbit anytime soon. This company, named Gilmour Space, launched its first test flight last July, but the rocket stalled moments after clearing the launch pad. Gilmour raised approximately $90 million, primarily from venture capital firms, before the first flight of its Eris rocket. The firm more than tripled this figure with a bountiful fundraising round amounting to more than $300 million last month, led by the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation, a public financing firm established by the Australian government.

The NRFC said it is investing more than $50 million (75 million Australian dollars) into Gilmour to further develop the company’s Eris rocket, scale its satellite and rocket manufacturing, and expand its spaceport in Queensland. “By building sovereign space capability that underpins our everyday life—from Earth observation and communications to national security—Gilmour’s efforts will secure Australia’s access to essential space services, strengthen the country’s advanced manufacturing base, and create highly-skilled jobs and opportunities in the region,” said David Gall, NRFC’s CEO.

Brazil

The most populous nation in Latin America has tried longer than any other to cultivate an independent space launch capability. The efforts date back to the 1980s, but they have repeatedly misfired, and in one case, the results were fatal. The country’s VLS-1 rocket exploded on the ground in 2003, killing 21 Brazilian technicians working at a launch pad on the country’s northern Atlantic coast. The tragedy led the Brazilian government to eventually cancel the VLS satellite launcher and set a new course with a less powerful rocket sized for launching microsatellites.

The new rocket, named VLM, is under development by the Brazilian Space Agency and the Brazilian Air Force in partnership with Germany, but there have been few signs of tangible progress since a test-firing of a solid-fueled rocket motor in 2021. The Brazilian aerospace company working with the government on the VLM rocket filed for bankruptcy in 2022, and its future remains uncertain amid court-ordered restructuring. At that time, Brazil’s government had reportedly committed between $30 million and $40 million to the VLM rocket project.

Given that situation, Brazil’s best bet to field a new orbital-class rocket appears to be through a public-private partnership. Through a public financing agency, the Brazilian government also agreed to provide $30 million to $40 million to a domestic industrial consortium for an indigenous microlauncher known as MLBR, according to the Brazilian financial newspaper Valor Econômico. The team leading the MLBR project has released regular updates on LinkedIn, unlike the VLM project, but progress on early-stage ground tests remains slow.

Brazil’s long-running effort to develop a domestic launch capability has been colored by tragedy. Here, a member of the Brazilian Air Force overlooks the rubble from the deadly explosion of the VLS-1 rocket on its launch pad in August 2003. Credit: Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Images

Taiwan

Taiwan’s government is increasing funding for the country’s space program, but the Taiwan Space Agency’s annual budget remains modest at approximately $200 million per year. The nation’s efforts in the space sector have primarily focused on building satellites and instruments for Earth observation, weather monitoring, and scientific research. Last year, the Taiwan Space Agency announced a goal of launching a homegrown rocket into orbit by 2034, with more than $25 million in the agency’s 2026 budget to kick-start the program. The space agency says flight testing of the new rocket, designed to haul up to 440 pounds (200 kilograms) to low-Earth orbit, could begin by 2029.

Argentina

Argentina also has a long-running project aiming to onshore access to space. The centerpiece of this project is the Tronador II rocket, a two-stage, liquid-fueled vehicle designed to deliver small payloads to low-Earth orbit. Argentina’s economic woes have blocked any serious progress on the Tronador II. In a pair of announcements in late 2021 and late 2022, the government of Argentina pledged more than 14 billion pesos to develop a new orbital-class launch vehicle. At the time, this was equivalent to more than $100 million, but the subsequent devaluation of Argentine currency means the investment would be worth just $10 million today. The government of Argentine President Javier Milei has cut spending on research and technology programs, so Tronador is going nowhere fast.

Others

The United Arab Emirates is another up-and-coming space power with the resources to support the development of a commercial launch provider, though the government hasn’t yet revealed a budget to support such an effort. Several other countries, such as Indonesia, South Africa, and Turkey, have said they aspire to develop an indigenous orbital launch capability, but with little in the way of firm, significant financial commitments or substantive progress.

Stephen Clark is a space reporter at Ars Technica, covering private space companies and the world’s space agencies. Stephen writes about the nexus of technology, science, policy, and business on and off the planet.

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Space Station returns to a full crew complement after a month

crew 12, docking, iss, NASA, Space / 9u50fv / February 15, 2026

Running solo

After these astronauts departed on January 15, just a single NASA astronaut, Chris Williams, remained in orbit. He had reached space on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in November, alongside two Russian cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev. The space station is a big place, and with much of the facility now more than two decades old, Williams had to spend the majority of his time on maintenance and monitoring activities.

Back on Earth, NASA and SpaceX engineers were busy too. Because Crew 11 was brought home more than a month early, NASA and SpaceX scrambled to launch the Crew-12 vehicle a little sooner than expected, to minimize the time Williams had to manage the large US segment of the station on his own.

Expedition 74 welcomes NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 members aboard the International Space Station. In the front from left are Andrey Fedyaev of Roscosmos;Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, both from NASA; and Sophie Adenot from ESA (European Space Agency). In the back are Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos, Chris Williams of NASA, and Sergei Mikaev of Roscosmos.

That culminated with a successful Dragon launch early on Friday, with the reinforcements reaching the space station on Saturday evening.

“This mission has shown, in many ways, what it means to be mission focused at NASA,” said the space agency’s administrator, Jared Isaacman, during a post-launch news conference. “In the last couple of weeks we brought Crew 11 home early, we pulled forward Crew 12, all while simultaneously making launch preparations for the Artemis II mission. It’s only possible because of the incredibly talented workforce we have here at NASA alongside our contractors, and our commercial and international partners.”

Space Station returns to a full crew complement after a month Read More »

NASA has a new problem to fix before the next Artemis II countdown test

artemis, artemis II, artemis iii, human spaceflight, jared isaacman, Kennedy Space Center, NASA, orion, Science, Space, space launch system / Mike M. / February 14, 2026

John Honeycutt, chair of NASA’s Artemis II mission management team, said the decision to relax the safety limit between Artemis I and Artemis II was grounded in test data.

“The SLS program, they came up with a test campaign that actually looked at that cavity, the characteristics of the cavity, the purge in the cavity … and they introduced hydrogen to see when you could actually get it to ignite, and at 16 percent, you could not,” said Honeycutt, who served as NASA’s SLS program manager before moving to his new job.

Hydrogen is explosive in high concentrations when mixed with air. This is what makes hydrogen a formidable rocket fuel. But it is also notoriously difficult to contain. Molecular hydrogen is the smallest molecule, meaning it can readily escape through leak paths, and poses a materials challenge for seals because liquified hydrogen is chilled to minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 253 degrees Celsius).

So, it turns out NASA used the three-year interim between Artemis I and Artemis II to get comfortable with a more significant hydrogen leak, instead of fixing the leaks themselves. Isaacman said that will change before Artemis III, which likewise is probably at least three years away.

“I will say near-conclusively for Artemis III, we will cryoproof the vehicle before it gets to the pad, and the propellant loading interfaces we are troubleshooting will be redesigned,” Isaacman wrote.

Isaacman took over as NASA’s administrator in December, and has criticized the SLS program’s high cost—estimated by NASA’s inspector general at more than $2 billion per rocket—along with the launch vehicle’s torpid flight rate.

NASA’s expenditures for the rocket’s ground systems at Kennedy Space Center are similarly enormous. NASA spent nearly $900 million on Artemis ground support infrastructure in 2024 alone. Much of the money went toward constructing a new launch platform for an upgraded version of the Space Launch System that may never fly.

All of this makes each SLS rocket a golden egg, a bespoke specimen that must be treated with care because it is too expensive to replace. NASA and Boeing, the prime contractor for the SLS core stage, never built a full-size test model of the core stage. There’s currently no way to completely test the cryogenic interplay between the core stage and ground equipment until the fully assembled rocket is on the launch pad.

Existing law requires NASA continue flying the SLS rocket through the Artemis V mission. Isaacman wrote that the Artemis architecture “will continue to evolve as we learn more and as industry capabilities mature.” In other words, NASA will incorporate newer, cheaper, reusable rockets into the Artemis program.

The next series of launch opportunities for the Artemis II mission begin March 3. If the mission doesn’t lift off in March, NASA will need to roll the rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building to refresh its flight termination system. There are more launch dates available in April and May.

“There is still a great deal of work ahead to prepare for this historic mission,” Isaacman wrote. “We will not launch unless we are ready and the safety of our astronauts will remain the highest priority. We will keep everyone informed as NASA prepares to return to the Moon.”

NASA has a new problem to fix before the next Artemis II countdown test Read More »

When Amazon badly needed a ride, Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket delivered

Amazon, amazon leo, ariane 6, ArianeGroup, Arianespace, broadband, Commercial space, french guiana, Guiana space center, launch, project kuiper, Science, Space / DJ Henderson / February 14, 2026

The Ariane 64 flew with an extended payload shroud to fit all 32 Amazon Leo satellites. Combined, the payload totaled around 20 metric tons, or about 44,000 pounds, according to Arianespace. This is close to maxing out the Ariane 64’s lift capability.

Amazon has booked more than 100 missions across four launch providers to populate the company’s planned fleet of more than 3,200 satellites. With Thursday’s launch, Amazon has launched 214 production satellites on eight missions with United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, and now Arianespace.

The Amazon Leo constellation is a competitor with SpaceX’s Starlink Internet network. SpaceX now has more than 9,000 satellites in orbit beaming broadband to more than 9 million subscribers, and all have launched on the company’s own Falcon 9 rockets. Amazon, meanwhile, initially bypassed SpaceX when selecting which companies would launch satellites for the Amazon Leo program, formerly known as Project Kuiper.

Amazon booked the last nine launches on ULA’s soon-to-retire Atlas V, five of which have now flown, and reserved the rest of its launches in 2022 on rockets that had never launched before: 38 flights on ULA’s new Vulcan rocket, 24 launches on Blue Origin’s New Glenn, and 18 on Europe’s Ariane 6.

An artist’s illustration of the Ariane 6’s upper stage in orbit with a stack of Amazon Leo satellites awaiting deployment. Credit: Arianespace

Meanwhile, in Florida

All three new rockets suffered delays but are now in service. The Ariane 6 has enjoyed the fastest ramp-up in launch cadence, with six flights under its belt after Thursday’s mission from French Guiana. ULA’s Vulcan rocket has flown four times, and Amazon says its first batch of satellites to fly on Vulcan is now complete. But a malfunction with one of the Vulcan launcher’s solid rocket boosters on a military launch from Florida early Thursday—the second such anomaly in three flights—raises questions about when Amazon will get its first ride on Vulcan.

Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is gearing up for the third flight of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket from Florida as soon as next month. Amazon and Blue Origin have not announced when the first group of Amazon Leo satellites will launch on New Glenn.

When Amazon badly needed a ride, Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket delivered Read More »

Why is Bezos trolling Musk on X with turtle pics? Because he has a new Moon plan.

artemis, blue moon, blue origin, Space, spacex / Shannon Garcia / February 13, 2026

“It’s time to go back to the Moon—this time to stay.”

Step by step, ferociously? Credit: Jeff Bezos/X

The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, does not often post on the social media site owned by his rival Elon Musk. But on Monday, Bezos did, sharing a black-and-white image of a turtle emerging from the shadows on X.

The photo, which included no text, may have stumped some observers. Yet for anyone familiar with Bezos’ privately owned space company, Blue Origin, the message was clear. The company’s coat of arms prominently features two turtles, a reference to one of Aesop’s Fables, “The Tortoise and the Hare,” in which the slow and steady tortoise wins the race over a quicker but overconfident hare.

Bezos’ foray into social media turtle trolling came about 12 hours after Musk made major waves in the space community by announcing that SpaceX was pivoting toward the Moon, rather than Mars, as a near-term destination. It represented a huge shift in Musk’s thinking, as the SpaceX founder has long spoken of building a multi-planetary civilization on Mars.

Welcome to the Club

It must have provided Bezos with some self-satisfaction. He is also a believer in human settlement of space, but he has espoused the view that our spacefaring species should begin on the Moon and then build orbital space habitats. Back in 2019, when unveiling his vision, Bezos spoke about NASA’s goal of returning humans to the Moon through the Artemis Program. “I love this,” Bezos said. “It’s the right thing to do. We can help meet that timeline but only because we started three years ago. It’s time to go back to the Moon—this time to stay.”

So in posting an image of a turtle, Bezos was sending a couple of messages to Musk. First, it was something of a sequel to Bezos’ infamous “Welcome to the Club” tweet more than a decade ago. And secondly, Bezos was telling Musk that slow and steady wins the race. In other words, Bezos believes Blue Origin will beat SpaceX back to the Moon.

Why would Bezos, whose company has launched to orbit all of two times, think Blue Origin has a chance to compete with SpaceX (which has more than 600 orbital launches) to land humans on the Moon?

The answer can be found in a pair of documents obtained by Ars that outline an accelerated Artemis architecture that Blue Origin is now developing.

Some background on the Human Landing System

A little more than five years ago, NASA reached out to the US commercial space industry for help in building a lunar lander. This lander would dock with NASA’s Orion spacecraft to carry humans from an elliptical orbit around the Moon, known as a near-rectilinear halo orbit, down to the lunar surface and back up to Orion.

The story of what happened as part of this bidding process is long and convoluted (including lawsuits and remarkable graphics like this one from Blue Origin). However, what really matters is that, by 2023, both SpaceX and Blue Origin had contracts from NASA to develop lunar landers—SpaceX with Starship and Blue Origin with Blue Moon MK2—for crewed missions as part of the Artemis Program. Both mission architectures required propellant refueling, essentially the launch of “tankers” from Earth to transfer large amounts of fuel and oxidizer into low-Earth orbit to complete a lunar landing. SpaceX was considered to have a considerable lead on Blue Origin.

In 2025, again for complex reasons, it became clear that while these reusable landers were fantastic for a long-term lunar program, there were two problems. The first was that SpaceX blew up three Starships during testing last year, raising serious questions about whether the company would be ready to complete a lunar landing before 2030. And second, it was becoming clear that China may well have a simpler lander that could put taikonauts on the Moon before 2030.

Blue’s new plan

Last October, Ars revealed that Blue Origin was beginning to work on an “accelerated” architecture that could potentially land humans on the Moon before 2030 without requiring orbital refueling. Now, thanks to some new documents, we know what those landings could look like. The screenshots shared with Ars show two different missions, an uncrewed “demo” flight and a crewed Moon landing. Here’s what they entail:

Uncrewed demo mission: This requires three launches of the New Glenn rocket. The first two launches each put a “Transfer stage” into low-Earth orbit. The third launch puts a “Blue Moon MK2-IL” into orbit. (The “IL” stands for Initial Lander, and it appears to be a smaller version of the Blue Moon MK2 lander.) All three vehicles dock, and the first transfer stage boosts the stack to an elliptical orbit around Earth (after this, the stage burns up in Earth’s atmosphere). The second transfer stage then boosts the MK-2 lander from Earth orbit into a 15×100 km orbit above the Moon. From here, the MK-2 lander separates and goes down to the Moon, later ascending back to low-lunar orbit.

Crewed demo mission: This requires four launches of the New Glenn rocket. The first three launches each put a “Transfer stage” into low-Earth orbit. A fourth launch puts the MK2-IL lander into orbit and the vehicles dock. The first transfer stage pushes the stack into an elliptical Earth orbit. The second transfer stage pushes the stack to rendezvous with Orion in a near-rectilinear halo orbit. After the crew boards, the third and final transfer stage pushes the MK-2 lander into a low-lunar orbit before separating. The lander goes down to the Moon and then ascends to re-rendezvous with Orion.

A rendering of Blue Origin’s proposed Lunar Transporter. Credit: Blue Origin

The documents Ars has reviewed do not contain some crucial information. For example, what are the “transfer stages” they refer to? Are they the Lunar Transporter, a reusable space tug, under development? Or a modified upper stage of New Glenn or something else? It’s also unclear whether the Blue Moon MK2-IL is more like the simpler MK1 lander (which should fly soon) or if it will require major development work. Ars put these and other questions to Blue Origin, which declined to comment for this article.

So what to make of all this?

Sources indicated that Blue Origin is moving aggressively forward on its lunar program. This is one reason why the company recently iced its New Shepard spacecraft and has curtailed other activities to increase focus on major goals, including ramping up New Glenn cadence and accelerating lunar plans. This new architecture is one result of that.

There are major steps to go. The company must demonstrate the Blue Moon vehicle with the uncrewed MK1 mission, which likely will launch sometime late this spring or during the summer, with a lunar landing to follow. And although there is no orbital refueling as part of this new plan, it still requires complex docking and deep-space maneuvers, which Blue Origin has no experience with. Whether Bezos’ company could pull off all of these challenging tasks before 2030 is far from certain.

But one thing is clear. The 21st century space race back to the Moon now includes three participants: China’s state-run program, SpaceX, and Blue Origin. Game on.

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.

Why is Bezos trolling Musk on X with turtle pics? Because he has a new Moon plan. Read More »

Rocket Report: Say cheerio to Orbex; China is getting good at booster landings

rocket report, Space / Beth Washington / February 13, 2026

“You absolutely have to have a plan to compete with SpaceX on price.”

The Ariane 64 rocket makes its debut on Thursday. Credit: État-major des armées

Welcome to Edition 8.29 of the Rocket Report! We have a stuffed report this week with news from across the launch spectrum. Long-term, probably the most significant development this week was a subscale version of the Long March 10 rocket successfully launching and then executing a picture-perfect ocean landing. China is catching up rapidly to the United States when it comes to reusable launch.

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.

Orbex is going away. The UK-based launch company Orbex has entered insolvency proceedings after a planned takeover by European space logistics startup The Exploration Company fell through, European Spaceflight reports. In a statement, Orbex said the decision came after all “fundraising, merger and acquisition opportunities had all concluded unsuccessfully.” For anyone paying attention, this decision should not come as a surprise. A decade into its existence, Orbex had yet to produce demonstrable, ready-for-flight hardware.

Other companies interested in assets … According to the company, the appointment of administrators will give Orbex time to secure “as positive an outcome as possible for its creditors, employees and wider stakeholders.” It added that the process could include the sale of all or parts of the business or its assets, and another UK-based company, Skyrora, has expressed some interest. (submitted by Polynomics, zapman987, and EllPeaTea)

Firefly’s next Alpha mission launching soon. This week, Firefly said that its next Alpha rocket underwent a successful 20-second static fire test. This clears the way for the rocket to make a launch attempt no earlier than February 18 from its launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Au revoir Block I … It’s an important mission, because the previous Alpha launch, in April 2025, ended in failure when stage separation damaged one of the rocket’s upper stage engines and prevented the mission from reaching orbit. Moreover, the company lost the first stage of the flight in September during an accident in Texas. The upcoming flight, “Stairway to Seven,” will be the final flight of Block I of the Alpha booster.

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How can launch companies compete with SpaceX? Rocket firms are divided on how to compete with SpaceX in a market where demand outstrips supply, yet customers remain price sensitive, Space News reports. During a panel at the SmallSat Symposium on February 11, executives from several launch companies acknowledged the challenge of competing with SpaceX, which accounted for about half of all orbital launches globally in 2025, despite strong customer demand for launch services.

A low price is nice … “If your idea is to go into the market competing with SpaceX on price, you’re probably not in a good competitive position,” said Brian Rogers, vice president of global launch services at Rocket Lab, one of the few small launch vehicle developers to thrive despite competition from SpaceX. But this view was far from universal. Devon Papandrew, vice president of business development at Stoke Space, disagreed. “You absolutely have to have a plan to compete with SpaceX on price,” he said. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Rocket Lab blows up a few Archimedes engines. According to reporting by Ars, Rocket Lab has blown up two Archimedes rocket engines in the last three months at its test stand in southern Mississippi. The engine test anomalies come at a critical time for Rocket Lab, as it is attempting to finalize development of a flight version of the Archimedes engine, which burns liquid oxygen and methane and has a sea-level thrust of 165,000 pounds. Nine of these engines will power the company’s much-anticipated Neutron rocket, which is aiming for a debut launch later this year.

Testing the engine to its limits … Rocket Lab Chief Executive Officer Pete Beck downplayed concerns in a statement. “We test to the limits, that’s part of developing a successful rocket,” Beck said. “We often put the engine into very off nominal states to find the limits and sometimes they let go, this is normal and how you ensure rockets don’t fail in flight.” Beck has previously said that Rocket Lab’s goal is to identify failures during component-level testing so that, when Neutron launches, it has a high chance of reaching orbit on its first attempt.

Proton rocket returns to flight. After a nearly three-year break, a Russian Proton rocket flew again with the Elektro-L No. 5 meteorological satellite from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, Russian Space Web reports. This mission was supposed to launch in late 2025, but in December, final checks revealed a problem with the Block DM-03 upper stage.

A not-so-great launch record … The mission marked the last use of the Block DM-03 space tug on Proton, which will now be solely used as an upper stage for the Angara-5 rocket. First launched in 1965, the Proton rocket has undergone several upgrades in the six decades since then. It has launched 430 times, with 48 partial and total failures. No new Protons are under construction, and it will be phased out by the end of this decade in favor of the newer Angara vehicles. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

SpaceX exempted legal labor case. The National Labor Relations Board abandoned a Biden-era complaint against SpaceX after a finding that the agency does not have jurisdiction over Elon Musk’s space company, Ars reports. The US labor board said SpaceX should instead be regulated under the Railway Labor Act, which governs labor relations at railroad and airline companies.

A common carrier? … In January 2024, an NLRB regional director alleged in a complaint that SpaceX illegally fired eight employees who, in an open letter, criticized CEO Musk as a “frequent source of embarrassment.” The complaint sought reinstatement of the employees, back pay, and letters of apology to the fired employees. SpaceX responded by suing the NLRB, claiming the labor agency’s structure is unconstitutional. But a different issue SpaceX raised later—that it is a common carrier, like a rail company or airline—is what compelled the NLRB to drop its case.

More powerful Ariane 6 rocket launches. This first launch of the four-booster version of Ariane 6 took place on Thursday, launching 32 satellites for Amazon’s Leo constellation to low-Earth orbit. “This first flight of Ariane 64 sustains Europe’s autonomous access to space,” Toni Tolker-Nielsen, the European Space Agency’s director of space transportation, said in a news release.

More vrooom coming … Previous launches of Europe’s new Ariane rocket have used two solid rocket boosters. The heavier variant of the rocket is necessary to support Amazon’s constellation as well as more demanding missions to geostationary orbit. And more power is coming. In the near future, the P120C boosters will be replaced by upgraded P160C models, each carrying more than 14 metric tons of solid fuel. The Associated Press provided some interesting color behind the scenes of the launch from the location in France where the rocket’s main engines are manufactured. (submitted by biokleen and EllPeaTea)

Stoke Space increases fundraising round. The Washington-based launch company announced this week that it had extended its recent Series D funding round. The round was initially announced in October 2025 at $510 million, but has now been increased to $860 million. The original Series D funding focused on completing activation of Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, and expanding production capacity for the Nova launch vehicle. Stoke will use the additional capital to accelerate future elements of its product roadmap, the company said.

Putting the $ into $toke $pace … “We’re extremely grateful for our investors’ continued support,” said Andy Lapsa, co-founder and CEO of Stoke. “We’re executing with urgency to bring Nova to market and deliver for our customers. It’s a special vehicle, and there’s more in the pipeline.” With the extension, Stoke has now raised $1.34 billion to date. That is an impressive raise, and it will heighten expectations for the company’s debut of the Nova rocket.

Falcon 9 back after second stage anomaly. A Falcon 9 launched a batch of Starlink satellites on Saturday after SpaceX completed an investigation into an engine malfunction during the rocket’s previous launch, Space News reports. The rocket deployed its payload of 25 Starlink satellites into orbit about 62 minutes after liftoff. The launch was the first Falcon 9 mission since Feb. 2, when the rocket carried another set of Starlink satellites into orbit from Vandenberg.

That didn’t take long … While that mission successfully deployed its payload, SpaceX later said an “off-nominal condition” with the upper stage prevented it from performing a planned deorbit burn. The Federal Aviation Administration said Feb. 6 that it had authorized SpaceX to return the Falcon 9 to flight. “The final mishap report cites the probable root cause as the Falcon 9 second-stage engine’s failure to ignite prior to the deorbit burn,” the agency stated. “SpaceX identified technical and organizational preventive measures to avoid a recurrence of the event.” The FAA provided no additional details about the anomaly. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

China performs an impressive rocket landing. China’s space program, striving to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030, carried out a test flight of a new reusable booster and crew capsule late Tuesday (US time), and the results were spectacular, Ars reports. The launch of a subscale version of the Long March 10 rocket, still in development, provided engineers with an opportunity to verify the performance of an important part of the new Mengzhou capsule’s safety system. A test version of the Mengzhou spacecraft, flying without anyone onboard, climbed into the stratosphere on top of the Long March booster before activating its launch abort motors a little more than a minute into the flight as the rocket reached the moment of maximum aerodynamic pressure, known as Max-Q.

China getting there on rocket reuse … The abort motors pulled the capsule away from the booster, simulating an in-flight escape that might be necessary to whisk crews away from a failing rocket. The Mengzhou spacecraft later deployed parachutes and splashed down offshore from Hainan Island. Remarkably, the booster continued its ascent without the crew capsule, soaring into space on the power of its kerosene-fueled YF-100 engines before reentering the atmosphere, reigniting its engines, and nailing a propulsive landing in the South China Sea, right next to a recovery barge waiting to bring it back to shore.

Vulcan experiences a second nozzle issue. Moments after liftoff from Florida’s Space Coast early Thursday morning, a shower of sparks emerged in the exhaust plume of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. Seconds later, the rocket twisted on its axis before recovering and continuing the climb into orbit with a batch of US military satellites, Ars reports. The sight may have appeared familiar to seasoned rocket watchers. Sixteen months ago, a Vulcan rocket lost one of its booster nozzles shortly after launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The rocket recovered from the malfunction and still reached the mission’s planned orbit.

Next launch likely to be delayed … Details of Thursday’s booster problem remain unclear. An investigation into the matter is underway, according to ULA, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. But the circumstances resemble those of the booster malfunction in October 2024. The incident on Thursday’s mission suggests the defect was not fixed, or there is a separate problem with Northrop’s boosters. The next Vulcan launch is scheduled for no earlier than March with a GPS navigation satellite for the US Space Force. This schedule is now in doubt. The military’s Space Systems Command said in a statement it will “work closely with ULA per our mission assurance space flightworthiness process before the next Vulcan national security space mission.” (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Starship nearing next test flight. The upgraded Super Heavy booster slated to launch SpaceX’s next Starship flight has completed cryogenic proof testing, clearing a hurdle that resulted in the destruction of the company’s previous booster, Ars reports. The proof test is notable because it moves engineers closer to launching the first test flight of an upgraded version of SpaceX’s mega-rocket named Starship V3, or Block 3.

Launch possible within the next six to eight weeks … SpaceX launched the previous version, Starship V2, five times last year, but the first three test flights failed. The last two flights achieved SpaceX’s goals, and the company moved on to V3. Assuming that the remaining test work goes according to plan, SpaceX could be in position to launch the first Starship V3 test flight before the end of March.

New Glenn pushing on second stage reuse again. Engineers at Blue Origin have been grappling with a seemingly eternal debate that involves the New Glenn rocket and the economics of flying it. The debate goes back at least 15 years, to the early discussions around the design of the heavy lift rocket. The first stage, of course, would be fully reusable. But what about the upper stage of New Glenn, powered by two large BE-3U engines?

Do you want a job? … Now, Ars reports, reuse is back on the menu. Blue Origin has posted a new job listing for a director of Reusable Upper Stage Development, which says, “As the Director of Program Management for the New Glenn Upper Stage and Payload Accommodations (GS2PA), you will work with the Vice President of New Glenn GS2PA and directly support the execution of a lean engineering initiative to incrementally develop a reusable upper stage.” Ars estimates it presently costs Blue Origin more than $50 million to manufacture a New Glenn second stage.

Next three launches

February 12: Falcon 9 | Crew-12 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. | 10: 15 UTC

February 14: Falcon 9 | Starlink 17-13 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 22: 00 UTC

February 16: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-103 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 05: 00 UTC

Rocket Report: Say cheerio to Orbex; China is getting good at booster landings Read More »

ULA’s Vulcan rocket suffers another booster problem on the way to orbit

Space, united launch alliance, vulcan rocket / Mike M. / February 12, 2026

Moments after liftoff from Florida’s Space Coast early Thursday morning, a shower of sparks emerged in the exhaust plume of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. Seconds later, the rocket twisted on its axis before recovering and continuing the climb into orbit with a batch of US military satellites.

The sight may have appeared familiar to seasoned rocket watchers. Sixteen months ago, a Vulcan rocket lost one of its booster nozzles shortly after launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The rocket recovered from the malfunction and still reached the mission’s planned orbit.

Details of Thursday’s booster problem remain unclear. An investigation into the matter is underway, according to ULA, a 50-50 joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. But the circumstances resemble those of the booster malfunction in October 2024. Closeup video from Thursday’s launch shows a fiery plume near the throat of one of the rocket’s four solid-fueled boosters, the area where the motor’s propellant casing connects to its bell-shaped exhaust nozzle. The throat drives super-hot gas from the burning solid propellant through the nozzle to generate thrust.

Anomalous plume

The plume first appeared less than 30 seconds after liftoff at 4: 22 am EST (09: 22 UTC) on Thursday. The rocket later released a cloud of sparks and debris a little more than a minute into the flight. That was followed by a sudden rolling motion along the long axis of the Vulcan launcher. Finally, the rocket’s four strap-on boosters burned out and were jettisoned, falling into the Atlantic Ocean, and ULA said the rest of the mission continued without incident.

“Early during flight, the team observed a significant performance anomaly on one of the four solid rocket motors. Despite the observation, the Vulcan booster and Centaur performed nominally and delivered the spacecraft directly to geosynchronous orbit,” said Gary Wentz, ULA’s vice president of Atlas and Vulcan programs. “The integrated US government and contractor team is reviewing the technical data, available imagery, and establishing a recovery team to collect any debris. We will conduct a thorough investigation, identify root cause, and implement any corrective action necessary before the next Vulcan mission.”

ULA’s Vulcan rocket suffers another booster problem on the way to orbit Read More »

Yes, Rocket Lab is blowing up engines. No, it’s not a big deal, CEO says.

archimedes, engine test anomaly, neutron, rocket, rocket lab, Space / Beth Washington / February 11, 2026

A little more than two months ago, a Rocket Lab employee called the Stennis Space Center Fire Department from the nearby A3 test stand. There was a grass fire where Archimedes engines undergo testing. Could they please send personnel over?

According to the fire station’s November 30 dispatcher log, the employee said, “The fire started during a test when an anomaly caused an electrical box to catch fire.”

Satellite imagery from before and after the anomaly appears to show that the roof had been blown off the left test cell, one of two at the test stand at the historic NASA facility in southern Mississippi. One person with knowledge of the anomaly said, “The characterization of this as an electrical fire doesn’t reflect what actually occurred. This was a catastrophic engine explosion that resulted in significant infrastructure damage.”

According to two sources, this is one of at least two Archimedes engine tests that have failed in the past three months.

The engine test anomalies come at a critical time for Rocket Lab, as it is attempting to finalize development of a flight version of the Archimedes engine, which burns liquid oxygen and methane and has a sea-level thrust of 165,000 pounds. Nine of these engines will power the company’s much-anticipated Neutron rocket, which is aiming for a debut launch later this year.

Making mountains out of molehills?

In response to a query from Ars about the engine test anomalies, Rocket Lab Chief Executive Officer Pete Beck downplayed concerns.

Yes, Rocket Lab is blowing up engines. No, it’s not a big deal, CEO says. Read More »

China showcases new Moon ship and reusable rocket in one extraordinary test

china, human spaceflight, launch, long march 10, mengzhou, moon, reusable rocket, Space, Wenchang / Mike M. / February 11, 2026

A Chinese Long March 10 booster, powered by seven kerosene-fueled YF-100K engines, lifts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on Hainan Island on February 11, 2026 (local time). Credit: Liu Yang/VCG via Getty Images

Mengzhou, which means “dream vessel” in Chinese, is scheduled for its first orbital test flight later this year. The spacecraft will launch on a Long March 10A rocket and dock with China’s Tiangong space station in low-Earth orbit. The Long March 10A, optimized for low-Earth orbit flights, will consist of a single reusable first-stage booster flying in combination with an upper stage. The full-size Long March 10, with 21 engines on three first-stage boosters connected together, will have the power to place payloads up to 70 metric tons into low-Earth orbit, and enough energy to propel the 26-metric-ton Mengzhou spacecraft to the Moon.

China’s leading state-owned space industry contractor, the China Aerospace and Science Technology Corporation (CASC), said the recovery of the Long March 10 booster after the in-flight abort test lays the foundation for “subsequent full-profile flight tests” and marks a “significant step” for China in “mastering reusable rocket technology.”

“The flight test further evaluated several key technologies, including the reliability of multiple engine restarts and high-altitude ignition during the rocket’s reentry phase, adaptability to complex force and thermal environments, and high-precision navigation control during the reentry phase.”

CASC oversees a sprawling industry of rocket and spacecraft manufacturers, including those responsible for designing and building the Mengzhou spacecraft and Long March 10 rocket.

The Mengzhou capsule splashes down in the South China Sea after the in-flight abort test. Credit: China Manned Space Agency

The successful splashdown and recovery of the Long March 10 booster continues a busy period for China’s reusable rocket initiatives. No fewer than 10 Chinese companies are working on reusable rockets at different levels of maturity, all seeking to match the success of SpaceX’s reusable rocket program in the United States.

In December, two Chinese launch providers debuted new rockets—the Zhuque-3 and Long March 12A—with recoverable and reusable boosters. The rockets reached orbit, but their boosters missed their landings downrange from their launch pads.

Several Chinese companies have also completed high-altitude “hop tests” to evaluate vertical takeoff and vertical landing technologies ahead of launching their first orbital flights.

These advancements in China’s reusable rocket and lunar exploration programs come as NASA prepares to launch a crew of four astronauts on a loop around the far side of the Moon as soon as next month. A US-made lunar lander is likely still a few years away from being ready to transport crews to and from the lunar surface.

China showcases new Moon ship and reusable rocket in one extraordinary test Read More »

Why would Elon Musk pivot from Mars to the Moon all of a sudden?

Mars, moon, musk, Space, spacex / Shannon Garcia / February 9, 2026

As more than 120 million people tuned in to the Super Bowl for kickoff on Sunday evening, SpaceX founder Elon Musk turned instead to his social network. There, he tapped out an extended message in which he revealed that SpaceX is pivoting from the settlement of Mars to building a “self-growing” city on the Moon.

“For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years,” Musk wrote, in part.

Elon Musk tweet at 6: 24 pm ET on Sunday. Credit: X/Elon Musk

This is simultaneously a jolting and practical decision coming from Musk.

Why it’s a jolting decision

A quarter of a century ago, Musk founded SpaceX with a single-minded goal: settling Mars. One of his longest-tenured employees, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell, described her very first interview with Musk in 2002 to me as borderline messianic.

“He was talking about Mars, his Mars Oasis project,” Shotwell said. “He wanted to do Mars Oasis, because he wanted people to see that life on Mars was doable, and we needed to go there.”

She was not alone in this description of her first interaction with Musk. The vision for SpaceX has not wavered. Even in the company’s newest, massive Starship rocket factory at the Starbase facility in South Texas—also known as the Gateway to Mars—there are reminders of the red planet everywhere. For example, the carpet inside Musk’s executive conference room is rust red, the same color as the surface of Mars.

In the last 25 years, Musk has gone from an obscure, modestly wealthy person to the richest human being ever, from a political moderate to chief supporter of Donald Trump; from a respected entrepreneur to, well, to a lot of things to a lot of people: world’s greatest industrialist/supervillain/savant/grifter-fraudster.

But one thing that has remained constant across the Muskverse is his commitment to “extending the light of human consciousness” and to the belief that the best place to begin humanity’s journey toward becoming a multi-planetary species was Mars.

Why would Elon Musk pivot from Mars to the Moon all of a sudden? Read More »

NASA stage show explores “outer” outer space with Henson’s Fraggles

A Space-y Adventure, artemis, Cotterpin, doozer, Florida, Fraggle, fraggle rock, Gobo, Henson Creature Shop, international space station, John Tartaglia, Kennedy Space Center, KSCVC, NASA, RED, Space, Space Coast, Space exploration, space history, stage show, The Jim Henson Company, Uncle Traveling Matt, Universe Theater, Visitor Complex / Beth Washington / February 7, 2026

(Asked why Traveling Matt would not have recognized the Moon from his time in outer space, Tartaglia said that perhaps he did see it, but only as a thin crescent, and did not equate the two. Or maybe it was that he was “so forward-driven” that he never bothered to look up.)

A postcard with a picture of a “cookie” helps lead Gobo, Red, and Uncle Traveling Matt to learning about the moon and how NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems team is enabling astronaut missions to the lunar surface. Credit: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

As Gobo, Red, and Traveling Matt step through the Fraggle hole onto the stage at Kennedy, they are no longer hand-operated puppets but full-body “walk-around” characters. And to remain to scale, that meant up-scaling another character, too.

“When we scaled up the Fraggles to be costume-size, so they could dance and move without being encumbered by being just puppets, we realized that one of the Doozers would have to become puppet-size. That was really fun to do because the real Doozers are six inches tall, and they are animatronic. They’re teeny, and now they get to have their glory as hand puppets,” said Tartaglia, who also voices Gobo for the show and performs as him when in puppet size.

Down at Fraggle Rock

When NASA first contacted the Jim Henson Company about bringing the Fraggles to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Tartaglia and his team knew it would be cool. And once they decided to have Uncle Traveling Matt be the show’s central character, the plot came together fairly quickly.

“He’s a great character to learn from because he is so oblivious, and he thinks he knows everything, and he really doesn’t. So he’s a great character to use as a bridge for the audience to be able to learn all these awesome facts and figures about NASA,” said Tartaglia.

He and his team also came to appreciate how much Fraggle Rock shares with the space agency, its activities, and goals.

“We all started talking and realized really quickly that Fraggles and Doozers and the whole message of Fraggle Rock—especially about Uncle Matt—is about exploring new worlds, making discoveries, and the whole fragile ecosystem. All of these different worlds need each other and want to work to learn more about each other. It sounded all very aligned with what NASA does and the whole purpose of space exploration,” said Tartaglia.

“So our two worlds that on paper wouldn’t seem connected, made a lot of sense to connect,” he said.

NASA stage show explores “outer” outer space with Henson’s Fraggles Read More »

Rocket Report: SpaceX probes upper stage malfunction; Starship testing resumes

artemis II, blue origin, china, Firefly Aerospace, NASA, new shepard, rocket report, Science, Space, space launch system, spacex, starship / Kelly Newman / February 7, 2026

Amazon has booked 10 more launches with SpaceX, citing a “near-term shortage in launch capacity.”

The top of SpaceX’s next Super Heavy booster, designated Booster 19, as the rocket undergoes testing at Starbase, Texas. The Rio Grande River is visible in the background. Credit: SpaceX

Welcome to Edition 8.28 of the Rocket Report! The big news in rocketry this week was that NASA still hasn’t solved the problem with hydrogen leaks on the Space Launch System. The problem caused months of delays before the first SLS launch in 2022, and the fuel leaks cropped up again Monday during a fueling test on NASA’s second SLS rocket. It is a continuing problem, and NASA’s sparse SLS launch rate makes every countdown an experiment, as my colleague Eric Berger wrote this week. NASA will conduct another fueling test in the coming weeks after troubleshooting the rocket’s leaky fueling line, but the launch of the Artemis II mission is off until March.

As always, we welcome reader submissions. 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.

Blue Origin “pauses” New Shepard flights. Blue Origin has “paused” its New Shepard program for the next two years, a move that likely signals a permanent end to the suborbital space tourism initiative, Ars reports. The small rocket and capsule have been flying since April 2015 and have combined to make 38 launches, all but one of which were successful, and 36 landings. In its existence, the New Shepard program flew 98 people to space, however briefly, and launched more than 200 scientific and research payloads into the microgravity environment.

Moon first… So why is Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos more than a quarter of a century ago, ending the company’s longest-running program? “We will redirect our people and resources toward further acceleration of our human lunar capabilities inclusive of New Glenn,” wrote the company’s chief executive, Dave Limp, in an internal email on January 30. “We have an extraordinary opportunity to be a part of our nation’s goal of returning to the Moon and establishing a permanent, sustained lunar presence.” The cancellation came, generally, as a surprise to Blue Origin employees. The company flew its most recent mission a week prior to the announcement, launching six people into space.

Sign Me Up!

Firefly nears return to flight. Firefly Aerospace is preparing to launch its next 1-ton-class Alpha rocket later this month from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The Texas-based company announced last month that it shipped the Alpha rocket to the California spaceport, and a follow-up post on social media on January 29 showed a video of the rocket rolling out to its launch pad for testing. “Alpha is vertical on the pad and getting ready for our static fire ahead of the Stairway to Seven mission!” Firefly wrote on X.

Getting back on track... This is an important mission for Firefly’s Alpha rocket program. On the most recent Alpha flight last April, the rocket’s first stage exploded in flight, moments after separation from the second stage. The blast wave damaged the upper stage engine, preventing it from reaching orbit with a small commercial tech demo satellite. Then, in September, the booster stage for the next Alpha launch was destroyed during a preflight test in Texas. Firefly says the upcoming mission is purely a test flight and won’t fly with any customer payloads. The company announced that an upgraded “Block II” version of the Alpha rocket will debut on the subsequent mission.

China to test next-gen crew capsule. China is gearing up for an important test of its new Mengzhou spacecraft, perhaps as soon as February 11, according to airspace warning notices issued around the Wenchang spaceport on Hainan Island. Images from public viewing sites around the launch site showed a test model of the Mengzhou spacecraft being lifted atop a booster stage this week. The flight next week is expected to include an in-flight test of the capsule’s launch abort system. Mengzhou is China’s next-generation crew spacecraft for human flights to the Moon. It will also replace China’s Shenzhou crew spacecraft used for flights to the Tiangong space station in low-Earth orbit.

Proceeding apace... The in-flight abort test follows a pad abort test of the Mengzhou spacecraft last year as China marches toward the program’s first orbital test flight. The booster stage for the in-flight abort test is a subscale version of China’s new Long March 10 rocket, the partially reusable human-rated launcher under development for the country’s lunar program. Therefore, next week’s milestone flight will serve as an important test of not only the Mengzhou spacecraft but also its rocket.

SpaceX confirms upper stage malfunction. SpaceX kicked off the month of February with a Monday morning Falcon 9 rocket launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. However, the rocket experienced an anomaly near the end of the mission, Spaceflight Now reports. The rocket deployed its payload of 25 Starlink satellites as planned, but SpaceX said the Falcon 9’s second stage “experienced an off-nominal condition” during preparation for an engine firing to steer back into the atmosphere for a guided, destructive reentry. The rocket remained in a low-altitude orbit and made an unguided reentry later in the week.

Launches temporarily on hold... “Teams are reviewing data to determine root cause and corrective actions before returning to flight,” SpaceX said in a statement. A Starlink launch from Florida originally planned for this week is now on hold. SpaceX returned the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing, containing the Starlink payloads, from the launch pad back to the hangar at Kennedy Space Center to wait for the next launch opportunity. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 team in Florida is now focusing on preparations for launch of the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station, targeted for no earlier than February 11. The schedule for Crew-12 will hinge on how quickly SpaceX can complete the investigation into Monday’s upper stage malfunction. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

Amazon’s new booking with SpaceX. Amazon has purchased an additional 10 Falcon 9 launches from SpaceX as part of its efforts to accelerate deployment of its broadband satellite constellation, Space News reports. The deal, which neither Amazon nor SpaceX previously announced, was disclosed in an Amazon filing with the Federal Communications Commission on January 30, seeking an extension of a July deadline to deploy half of its Amazon Leo constellation. Amazon has launched only 180 satellites of its planned 3,232-satellite constellation, rendering the July deadline unattainable. Amazon asked the FCC to extend the July deadline by two years or waive it entirely, but did not request an extension to the 2029 deadline for full deployment of the constellation.

“Near-term shortage in launch capacity”… In the filing with the FCC, Amazon said it faces a “near-term shortage of launch capacity” and is securing additional launch options “wherever available.” That effort includes working with SpaceX, whose Starlink constellation directly competes with Amazon Leo. Amazon bypassed SpaceX entirely when it made its initial orders for more than 80 Amazon Leo launches with United Launch Alliance, Arianespace, and Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. But Amazon later reserved three launches with SpaceX that flew last year and has now added 10 more SpaceX launches to its manifest. So far, Amazon has only launched satellites on ULA’s soon-to-retire Atlas V rocket and SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Amazon has not started flying on the new Vulcan, Ariane 6, or New Glenn rockets, which comprise the bulk of the constellation’s launch bookings. That could change next week with the first launch of Amazon Leo satellites on Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket. (submitted by EllPeaTea)

China launches satellite for Algeria. Algeria’s Alsat-3B mission, an Earth observation satellite developed in collaboration with China, launched aboard a Chinese Long March 2C rocket on January 30, Connecting Africa reports. Alsat-3B is the twin of Alsat-3A, which launched from China earlier in the month. Algeria’s government signed a contract with China in 2023 covering the development and launch of the two Alsat-3 satellites. Both satellites are designed to provide high‑resolution Earth observation imagery, enhancing Algeria’s geospatial intelligence capabilities.

Belt, road, and orbit… In a joint statement, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the Algerian remote-sensing satellite project is another successful example of China-Algeria aerospace cooperation and an important demonstration of the two nations’ comprehensive strategic partnership. China has inked similar space-related partnerships to produce and launch satellites for other African nations, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Sudan.

Soyuz-5 launch set for March. Just a few months ago, Russia aimed to launch the first flight of the new Soyuz-5 medium-lift rocket before the end of 2025. Now, the Soyuz-5’s debut test flight is targeted for the end of March, Aviation Week & Space Technology reports. Dmitry Baranov, the deputy head of Roscosmos, announced the new schedule at a scientific conference in Moscow. The mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan would mark the first flight of a new Russian rocket since 2014.

A reactionary rocket… Ars has reported on the Soyuz-5 project before. While the rocket will use a new overall design, the underlying technology is not all that new. The Soyuz-5, also named Irtysh, is intended to be a replacement for the Zenit rocket, a medium-lift launcher developed in the final years before the fall of the Soviet Union. The Zenit rocket’s main stages were manufactured in Ukraine, and tensions between Russia and Ukraine spelled the end of the Zenit program even before Russia invaded its neighbor in 2022. The Soyuz-5 uses a modified version of the RD-171 engine that has flown since the 1980s. This new RD-171 design uses all Russian components. The upper stage engine is based on the same design flown on Russia’s workhorse Soyuz-2 rocket.

Fueling test reveals leaks on SLS rocket. The launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first flight of astronauts to the Moon in more than 53 years, will have to wait another month after a fueling test on Monday uncovered hydrogen leaks in the connection between the rocket and its launch platform at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Ars reports. The practice countdown was designed to identify problems and provide NASA an opportunity to fix them before launch. Most importantly, the test revealed NASA still has not fully resolved recurring hydrogen leaks that delayed the launch of the unpiloted Artemis I test flight by several months in 2022. Artemis I finally launched successfully after engineers revised their hydrogen loading procedures to overcome the leak.

Hardware poor… Now, the second Space Launch System (SLS) rocket is on the cusp of launching a crew for the first time. Even as it reaches maturity, the rocket is going nowhere fast. It has been more than three years since NASA discovered leaks on the first SLS rocket. The rocket alone costs more than $2 billion to build. The program is hardware poor, leaving NASA unable to build a test model that might have been used to troubleshoot and resolve the hydrogen leaks before the agency proceeded into the Artemis II launch campaign. “Every SLS rocket is a work of art, every launch campaign an adventure, every mission subject to excessive delays. It’s definitely not ideal,” Ars reported in a story examining this problem.

SpaceX, meet xAI. SpaceX has formally acquired another one of Elon Musk’s companies, xAi, Ars reports. The merging of what is arguably Musk’s most successful company, SpaceX, with the more speculative xAI venture is a risk. Founded in 2023, xAI’s main products are the generative AI chatbot Grok and the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter. The company aims to compete with OpenAI and other artificial intelligence firms. However, Grok has been controversial, including the sexualization of women and children through AI-generated images, as has Musk’s management of Twitter.

Lots of assumptions… There can be no question that the merger of SpaceX—the world’s premier spaceflight company—and the artificial intelligence firm offers potential strategic advances. With this merger, Musk plans to use SpaceX’s deep expertise in rapid launch and satellite manufacturing and management to deploy a constellation of up to 1 million orbital data centers, providing the backbone of computing power needed to support xAI’s operations. All of this is predicated on several assumptions, including that AI is not a bubble, orbital data centers are cost-competitive compared to ground-based data centers, and that compute is the essential roadblock that will unlock widespread adoption of AI in society. Speculative, indeed, but only SpaceX has a rocket that might one day be able to realistically deploy a million satellites.

Starship testing resumes. The enormous rocket we’re talking about, of course, is SpaceX’s Starship. Ground teams at Starbase, Texas, have rolled the Super Heavy booster for SpaceX’s next Starship flight to a test stand for a series of checkouts ahead of the flight, currently slated for sometime in March. This will be the first launch of SpaceX’s upgraded “Block 3” Starship, with improvements aimed at making the rocket more reliable following several setbacks with Starship Block 2 last year.

Frosty night on the border… This is the second time a Block 3 booster has made the trip to the test stand at Starbase, located just north of the US-Mexico border. Booster 18 suffered a structural failure at the test site in November, forcing SpaceX to scrap it and complete the next rocket in line, Booster 19. On Wednesday night, SpaceX put Booster 19 through cryogenic proof testing, clearing a key milestone on the path to launch. The next flight will likely follow a similar profile as previous Starship missions, with a suborbital arc carrying the ship from its South Texas launch base to a splashdown in the Indian Ocean. If successful, the test will pave the way for bigger tests to come, including an in-space refueling demo and the catch and recovery of a Starship vehicle returning from space.

Next three launches

Feb. 7: Long March 2F | Chinese spaceplane? | Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China | 03: 55 UTC

Feb. 7: Falcon 9 | Starlink 17-33 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 17: 05 UTC

Feb. 11: Falcon 9 | Crew-12 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 11: 01 UTC

Rocket Report: SpaceX probes upper stage malfunction; Starship testing resumes Read More »