Rocketry development and concepts

[wjfox]

A general thread for discussing the development of rocket-based launch systems.

This includes orbital and suborbital rockets, reusable boosters, heavy-lift vehicles, and experimental propulsion technologies.

For specific companies, please see:

SpaceX
BlueOrigin
Relativity Space

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Rocket Lab Successfully Launches Electron Rocket With Busy Year Ahead
This marks the 65th launch of the Electron design, with only four failures in the rocket's history.
By Jon Martindale June 3, 2025
https://www.extremetech.com/aerospace/r ... year-ahead

Rocket Lab's Electron rocket continued its successful launch history this week by inserting the BlackSky Gen-3 satellite into a low-Earth-orbit target, 292 miles above the Earth. This is the seventh successful launch Electron has made this year, but the schedule is only going to accelerate from here. There are already a further 14 launches planned for the rest of 2025, with two more slated for 2026, and a further 10 within a 2025-2027 launch window.

Rocket Lab has been developing its Electron rocket design for over a decade and has been successfully launching payloads for customers since the end of 2018. Although the industry has been dominated by larger rocket developers, like SpaceX, Rocket Lab has continually championed the smaller rocket industry. In April, it argued that there was a value in being able to control the orbital insertion angle, instead of just ride-sharing on someone else's payload in a larger rocket design, like a Falcon 9, or future Starship.

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Honda Now Makes VTOL Rockets and Early Tests Are Encouraging
This is the first successful test of a reusable first-stage rocket outside of the USA and China.

If we needed any further indication that the 21st-century space race is heating up, Japanese car maker Honda has thrown its hat in the ring with a successful test of a reusable first-stage rocket. Said to have been under development for at least six years, the rocket flew to a height of 900 feet before returning carefully and safely to the launch pad, completely intact.

Although the space shuttle pioneered the idea of reusable launch vehicles in the 1970s, it was only in the 2000s and 2010s that the idea really took off. The SpaceX Falcon 9 became the first commercial launch vehicle to nail the reusable first-stage concept, but others have followed in its wake, and many more are expected from US and Chinese aerospace firms in the 2020s. Honda just demonstrated the first potential Japanese launch vehicle that could do much the same.

In this test, Honda launched a small rocket, measuring just 21 feet tall and 2.8 feet in diameter, weighing just under 2,900 pounds when fully fuelled up. The rocket took off from its launch pedestal, retracting its landing legs in the process. It then flew carefully to its intended height of around 900 feet before extending fins similar to those of the Falcon 9 and performing a controlled descent. It touched back down within just a few inches of its intended target, according to Honda.

The flight lasted just under a minute.

https://www.extremetech.com/aerospace/h ... ncouraging

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Rocket Lab launches second Electron within 48 hours
by Jeff Foust June 28, 2025
https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launch ... -48-hours/
Electron launch

WASHINGTON — A Rocket Lab Electron placed an undisclosed satellite into orbit June 28 on the company’s second launch within 48 hours and fourth this month.

The Electron lifted off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 3:08 a.m. Eastern. The rocket’s kick stage deployed its payload into a 650-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit less than an hour later.

Rocket Lab did not disclose any details about the payload beyond its orbit, stating that it was for a confidential customer. That customer signed a contract less than four months ago for this launch as well as a second mission scheduled before the end of the year.

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Australian Eris Rocket Clears Lauchpad in First Test, Crashes Shortly After
The problem seems to have stemmed from a first-stage engine's failure to fire.
By Jon Martindale July 30, 2025

Gilmour Space, an Australian aerospace company, conducted the first test launch of its Eris rocket this week, to muted success. Although the rocket managed to (slowly) clear the launchpad, it failed to go much beyond that. The rocket spun out of control, toppled, vented a lot of propellant, and ultimately exploded.

Although the developer hailed this as a successful launch attempt and smaller rocket startups often face problems with early launch tests, Gilmour Space has already faced many delays throughout the development stage. Early investors, then, probably won't be too enthusiastic.

https://www.extremetech.com/aerospace/a ... rtly-after

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United Launch Alliance Pushes for Greater Reusability In Vulkan Centaur Rocket
It's already trying to recover the engine from the first stage, but there's more to come.
By Jon Martindale August 21, 2025
https://www.extremetech.com/aerospace/u ... an-centaur

Tory Bruno, president and CEO of the United Launch Alliance (ULA), has hinted that the company is working on improving the reusability of its Vulkan Centaur heavy-lift launch vehicle. He suggested that the plans were still quite secretive but that ULA was looking to build additional reusability into the design, beyond just recovering and repurposing the engines from the first stage. Such moves could allow ULA to compete more favorably with SpaceX, which has had great success with its reusable Falcon 9 rocket.

The Vulkan Centaur is a two-stage to orbit launch vehicle designed to replace the ULA's Atlas V and Delta IV rockets. It's meant to compete with SpaceX's Falcon 9, but also to phase out the use of Russian-made engines, like the RD-180 that's used with the Atlas V. Vulkan Centaur now uses BE-4 engines in its first stage, which the ULA hopes to repurpose as part of its SMART reuse system. A proposal would have the engines, avionics, and thrust structure detach with their own heat shields for later recovery.

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Ariane Themis Reusable Rocket 2025 Prototype Vs SpaceX Grasshopper 2012
September 19, 2025 by Brian Wang

Here is a comparison of Ariane’s Themis prototype in 2025 and SpaceX’s Grasshopper tests (2012–2013) and the early Falcon 9 reusability program (2013–2016). Ariane is 13 years behind SpaceX.

SpaceX had low-risk suborbital hops on Grasshopper. Had more advanced F9R Dev vehicle in 2014 and then landed boosters after commercial payloads were sent to orbit. This built the foundation for over 450 successful booster landings and counting now. It cut launch costs by up to 30% through rapid turnaround and be reusing 9 boosters out of every launch.

Themis is developed by ArianeGroup under ESA contract. It is Europe’s first serious program for vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) reusability. It is a 30-meter-tall prototype and is a single-engine demonstrator powered by the new Prometheus methalox engine, focused on proving autonomous guidance, landing legs, and cryogenic propellant management for future operational stages.
Themis copies Grasshoppers pad-based hops. Grasshopper had a 325 meter max altitude but Themis is planing ~100 meters. Neither carries payload, emphasizing structural integrity over performance.

Themis is shorter/lighter than the falcon 9 booster height. It is very similar to the Grasshopper but has a more efficient methalox engine (better ISP ~330 s vacuum vs. Merlin’s ~311 s), but its single-engine setup limits scale. SpaceX iterated faster (months between tests) and escalated to orbital risks by 2013 and endured public failures (2015 CRS-7 explosion mid-mission). Themis’s cryogenic focus anticipates Ariane Next’s efficiency gains, but Europe’s bureaucratic funding may slow progress compared to SpaceX’s fail fast approach.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2025/09/a ... -2012.html

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Starship could cut the travel time to Uranus in half
https://phys.org/news/2025-10-starship-uranus.html
by Andy Tomaswick, Universe Today

The ice giants remain some of the most interesting places to explore in the solar system. Uranus in particular has drawn a lot of interest lately, especially after the 2022 Decadal Survey from the National Academies named it as the highest priority destination. But as of now, we still don't have a fully fleshed out and planned mission ready to go for the multiple launch windows in the 2030s.

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