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Rocket Report: Vulcan "many months" from flying; Falcon 9 extends reuse milestone
All the news that’s fit to lift
Rocket Report: Vulcan “many months” from flying; Falcon 9 extends reuse milestone
“As the original architect of Vector’s vision, it’s deeply meaningful to bring these assets home.”
Feb 27, 2026 7:00 am
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Rocket Lab has completed qualification testing of its "Hungry Hippo" payload fairing.
Credit:
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab has completed qualification testing of its "Hungry Hippo" payload fairing.
Credit:
Rocket Lab
Welcome to Edition 8.31 of the Rocket Report! We have some late-breaking news this week with an update Thursday afternoon from Rocket Lab on the timing of its much-anticipated Neutron rocket. Following the failure of a first stage tank during testing, the company is pushing the medium-lift rocket’s debut into the fourth quarter of this year. Effectively that probably means 2027 for the booster, which is disappointing because we all very much want to see another reusable rocket take flight.
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.
The ghost of Vector lives on. 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.
What’s your vector, Victor? … “As the original architect of Vector’s vision, it’s deeply meaningful to bring these assets home to Phantom,” Cantrell said in a statement. “This acquisition isn’t just about technology, it’s about momentum. We’re accelerating Daytona, creating high-tech aerospace jobs in Tucson, and moving faster toward orbital capability.” The small-lift Daytona rocket could use some acceleration since it has been delayed year after year for a while now. At present, it is slated to debut during the second half of 2027.
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.
Putting policy into law … Although the legislation provided certainty, all three launch operator licenses issued to date by the UK Civil Aviation Authority include a cap on indemnity to the government. Virgin Orbit’s 2022 horizontal launch license capped this at $250 million, while the vertical launch licenses granted to Skyrora and Rocket Factory Augsburg in 2025 set the cap at £10.5 million ($14.2 million). However, these limits were imposed as a matter of policy rather than law.
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PLD nabs 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, European Spaceflight reports. 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.
Two at a time … PLD Space will attempt to carry its first two Tritó satellites to orbit aboard a dedicated MIURA 5 mission in 2027. According to the company, Sateliot selected PLD Space “based on MIURA 5’s ability to provide an independent, dedicated service tailored to the client’s specific needs, ensuring optimal launch conditions for deploying its space infrastructure.” Each Tritó satellite will have a mass of approximately 160 kilograms.
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.”
Invoking Berger’s Law … In its news release regarding the fourth quarter of 2025 earnings, the company said it completed successful qualification for Neutron’s thrust structure and entered the qualification phase for the interstage, and successfully qualified Neutron’s Hungry Hippo fairing and delivered it to the Assembly and Integration Complex in Virginia. I hate to do it, but I’m afraid that I am compelled to invoke Berger’s Law for rockets on this one, which states, “If a rocket is predicted to make its debut in Q4 of a calendar year, and that quarter is six or more months away, the launch will be delayed.” Since its inception in 2022, the law has been undefeated.
Falcon 9 extends its reuse milestone. SpaceX’s most-flown Falcon 9 rocket booster launched once again Saturday night, making its 33rd mission to space and back, Spaceflight Now reports. 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.
Lordy, lordy, Falcon 9 is turning 40? … 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.
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