Blue Origin · SpaceX · India · Artemis Program · Ars Technica
Rocket Report: Indian firm nears first launch; SpaceX's millenary milestone
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 1 source. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
◌ Single Source
Welcome to Edition 9.01 of the Rocket Report!
Key facts
- The other launch NASA awarded to Rocket Lab is for the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor-2, or TSIS-2, mission set to fly from New Zealand in early 2027
- Skyroot has raised approximately $160 million to date, including a $60 million fundraising round announced in May, boosting its valuation over $1 billion
- Skyroot Aerospace is set to launch the first test flight of its Vikram-1 rocket between July 12 and August 4 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, marking India’s first private attempt to place
- The SXM-11 satellite is a behemoth as far as spacecraft go, with a launch mass of about roughly 7 metric tons (15,000 pounds)
Summary
Back in January, the reporter wrote about the 20 launches and landings they were most excited about in 2026. As always, they welcome reader submissions. Swift Boost Mission reaches orbit. Mission managers called off two launch attempts Tuesday and Wednesday due to poor weather around the L-1011’s staging base on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. A rarity these days… This was the last scheduled flight of the air-launched Pegasus rocket, which had success in the 1990s and 2000s as a small satellite launcher for NASA and the US military. Launched in 2004, Swift was never designed to be serviced in orbit. Launch window set for India’s first commercial rocket.