Rocket Report: Vulcan "many months" from flying; Falcon 9 extends reuse milestone
Rocket Report: A Comprehensive Update on the Latest Developments in the Space Industry
Vulcan "Many Months" from Flying Again
United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket has experienced issues with the nozzle on one of its solid rocket boosters during a launch, twice in 2024 and again earlier this month. In both cases, the rocket's main engines compensated for the issues, but the US military is not eager to test Vulcan's ability to overcome such a dramatic problem again. "Any time there's an anomaly, my team is going to be actively engaged with the contractors to make sure we understand what happened and we correct that issue," said Col. Eric Zarybnisky, program acquisition executive for Space Systems Command's space access program.
The latest incident suggests that the defect was not fixed or that there is a separate problem with Northrop's boosters. The investigation is expected to be a "many months process" to identify the "exact technical issue" and the corrective actions required to prevent it from happening again. After the first booster issue in 2024, investigators identified a manufacturing defect in a carbon composite insulator, or heat shield, inside the nozzle.
SLS Rocket Rolls Back to Hangar
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced this week that a new problem with the Space Launch System rocket will require the removal of the rocket from its launch pad in Florida. The large booster, with the Orion spacecraft stacked on top, then rolled back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. The latest issue appeared on the evening of February 20, when data showed an interruption in helium flow into the upper stage of the Space Launch System rocket.
NASA officials were eyeing a launch attempt for Artemis II as soon as March 6, the first of five launch opportunities available in March. However, with the discovery of the helium issue last Friday night, the March launch dates are now off the table. There are approximately five days per month that the mission can depart the Earth after accounting for the position of the Moon in its orbit, the flight's trajectory, and thermal and lighting constraints.
Falcon 9 Extends Reuse Milestone
SpaceX's most-flown Falcon 9 rocket booster launched once again Saturday night, making its 33rd mission to space and back. The 33rd flight of Falcon 9 booster 1067 came about two and a half months after its previous launch in early December. Its previous missions include four flights for NASA, the European Commission's Galileo L13, and 20 batches of Starlink satellites.
Nearly 8.5 minutes after liftoff, B1067 landed on the drone ship A Shortfall of Gravitas, positioned in the Atlantic Ocean. This was the 143rd landing on this vessel and the 575th booster landing to date for SpaceX. At present, SpaceX says it is working to certify its first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket for up to 40 flights.
Pentagon Happy with Military Rockets
The Space Force officer tasked with overseeing more than $24 billion in research and development spending says the Pentagon is more interested in supporting startups building new space sensors and payloads than adding yet another rocket company to its portfolio. "We're on path for mass-produced launch," Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy said at a space finance conference in Dallas.
Payloads, Purdy told Ars after his talk, are "the last frontier" for scaling space missions. "I remain convinced that we're going to think about the mission that we need, and we're going to need satellites out the door and launched and in orbit within the week, at scale," Purdy said. "I'm very convinced that that's the path that we're going to move down on the commercial and government side."
New Data on How Rockets Pollute the Atmosphere
New research bolsters growing concerns about the pollution produced by rocket launches. The new study in Nature analyzed a plume of pollution trailing part of a Falcon rocket that crashed through the upper atmosphere on February 19, 2025, after SpaceX lost control of its reentry. The authors said it is the first time debris from a specific spacecraft disintegration has been traced and measured in the near-space region about 80 to 110 kilometers above Earth.
The study shows that instruments can detect rocket pollution "in the 'Ignorosphere' (upper atmosphere near space)," he wrote. "There is hope that we can get ahead of the problem and that we don't run blind into a new era of emissions from space."
Ambitious Chinese Launch Company Moves into Development
Chinese launch startup Space Epoch has secured B-round funding as the company moves toward a first orbital launch and recovery attempt late this year. The company says the funding means Space Epoch has entered a stage of large-scale development. "Three Yuanxingzhe-1 rockets already in production will undergo ground testing in the second half of the year, with the goal of achieving a successful first orbital launch and recovery by year's end," Space Epoch said in a statement.
Yuanxingzhe-1 (YXZ-1) is a methane-liquid oxygen rocket designed for reusability. Space Epoch says it has a payload capacity of 13,800 kilograms to a 200-kilometer orbit and 9,000 kg to a 1,100 km orbit—the latter altitude being one associated with the national Guowang megaconstellation. It also claims a price of no more than 20,000 yuan per kilogram (about $2,900 per kg), with the rocket designed to be reusable 20 times.
Neutron Rocket Launch Slips to Q4 2026
As part of its quarterly earnings guidance update on Thursday, Rocket Lab provided a new launch target for the medium-lift Neutron rocket. Following the failure of first stage tank during testing, Neutron's first launch is now targeted for "Q4 2026," the company said. This is a notable slip, given that it was only last November that Rocket Lab announced a slip from the end of 2025 to "mid-2026."
PLD Space Secures Launch Contract
Spanish satellite operator Sateliot has signed a launch services agreement with PLD Space to launch its first two high-capacity 5G D2D (Direct-to-Device) Tritó satellites aboard a dedicated MIURA 5 mission. PLD Space is working toward the first flight of its 35.7-meter-tall MIURA 5 rocket in 2026. The rocket is designed to deliver payloads of up to 1,040 kilograms to low-Earth orbit and will initially launch from a new multi-user facility being built on the grounds of the Guiana Space Centre's former Diamant launch complex.
Phantom Space Acquires Vector Assets
Tucson, Arizona-based satellite and rocket developer Phantom Space, co-founded by Jim Cantrell in 2019, has acquired the remnants of Vector Launch, Space News reports. The announcement is notable because Cantrell left Vector as its finances deteriorated in 2019. Cantrell said some of the assets, comprising flight-proven design elements, engineering data, and other technology originally developed for Vector, will be immediately integrated into Phantom's Daytona vehicle architecture to reduce development risk.
UK Limits Launch Liability
An amendment to the United Kingdom's Space Industry Act will mandate that limits are set on how much launch operators are financially liable if something goes wrong, European Spaceflight reports. According to Sarah Madden, a space lawyer at the London-based law firm Winckworth Sherwood, the amendment to the legislation removes the risk that operators launching from the UK might face unlimited liability.
Next Three Launches
February 27: Falcon 9 | Starlink 6-108 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida | 10:20 UTC
March 1: Alpha | Stairway to Seven | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 00:50 UTC
March 1: Falcon 9 | Starlink 17-23 | Vandenberg Space Force Base, California | 08:00 UTC
