Welcome to the Rocket Report! This week, we’re looking at some significant milestones and changes in the launch industry. Let’s dive in:

Rocket Lab to reuse flight tank

In a significant step towards making its Electron rocket reusable, Rocket Lab announced that it will be returning a previously flown first stage tank to the production line for the first time. This marks an important milestone in the company’s quest to make Electron the world’s first reusable small rocket. The stage was successfully launched and recovered as part of the ‘Four of a Kind’ mission earlier this year on January 31.

Virgin Orbit IP for sale on LinkedIn

Former Virgin Orbit chief executive Dan Hart has put the company’s intellectual property (IP) library up for sale on LinkedIn. The flight-proven LauncherOne IP can accelerate launch and hypersonic system development schedules by years, and enable significant cost savings. The IP library includes all manner of goodies, including an FAA-approved flight termination system, the Newton 3 and Newton 4 engines, avionics, structures, and more.

Virgin Galactic countersues Boeing

In a countersuit against Boeing, Virgin Galactic argues that Boeing performed poorly on a project to develop a new mothership aircraft, and misappropriated trade secrets. The dispute revolves around a project announced in 2022 to develop a new aircraft that would replace Virgin’s existing VMS Eve as an air-launch platform.

Navy awards contract to Ursa Major

The rocket propulsion startup Ursa Major has signed a contract with the United States Navy to develop and test solid fuel rocket engines. The agreement is part of a series of prototype engine contracts being awarded by the US Navy as it seeks to expand the industrial base for manufacturing them. This comes as the Navy is seeing a surge in missile demand due to ongoing conflicts around the world.

And that’s this week’s Rocket Report! We’ll be back next week with more news from the front lines of space exploration. 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).