Rocket Report: SpaceX says no thanks to military launches; Spanish rocket nearly ready - Ars Technica

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.

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.

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.