Rocket Report: New Shepard may fly soon; ULA changes mind on DoD competition

Enlarge / Stoke Space recently conducted a static fire test of its hopper vehicle. (credit: Stoke Space)

Welcome to Edition 6.11 of the Rocket Report! There’s a lot going on this week, including the completion of pre-flight tests by two companies developing reusable small launch vehicles. On the larger end of the spectrum, NASA is installing engines onto its second Space Launch System rocket, and SpaceX appears to be on track to get a launch license for its second Starship launch next month.

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.

New Shepard may return to flight in October. As of Tuesday, it has been a full year since the failure of the New Shepard-23 booster, in which the rocket was lost at 1 minute and 4 seconds into flight. While Blue Origin has not said anything publicly, Ars reports that the company’s tentative plans call for an uncrewed test flight of New Shepard in early October. If all goes well, Blue Origin is planning its first crewed mission since August 4, 2022, to take place in mid-February next year.