{"id":640225,"date":"2026-10-24T19:18:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T19:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/640225\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T19:18:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T19:18:27","slug":"rocket-report-spacex-says-no-thanks-to-military-launches-spanish-rocket-nearly-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/640225\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Report: SpaceX says no thanks to military launches; Spanish rocket nearly ready"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome to Edition 9.16 of the Rocket Report! Lots of SpaceX-related news this week including a couple of Thursday shockers. In one story, the company told the US Space Force thanks, but no thanks after being offered three military launch contracts. Then, on the civil space side of things, SpaceX\u2019s Starship may required up to 22 refuelings to support a lunar landing, a NASA safety panel said.<\/p>\n<p>As always, we <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.wufoo.com\/forms\/launch-stories\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">welcome reader submissions<\/a>, and if you don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"560\" height=\"81\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/smalll.png\" class=\"center full\" alt=\"\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Miura 5 getting closer to launch. PLD Space says its Miura 5 rocket, due to undertake its inaugural launch next year, is nearing final integration, <a href=\"https:\/\/aviationweek.com\/space\/launch-vehicles-propulsion\/pld-space-miura-5-inaugural-launcher-nears-final-integration\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aviation Week reports<\/a>. The rocket is one of three Miura 5s the company has already manufactured, with the other two designed to qualify key system elements, CEO Ra\u00fal Torres said in an October 19 program update. PLD Space now targets a first flight of the small-lift vehicle before mid-2027.<\/p>\n<p>Fully integrated stage \u2026 \u201cManufacturing these three vehicles has allowed our teams to work continuously across different stages of production and integration, applying the lessons learned from each qualification campaign directly to the launch vehicle,\u201d Torres said. One Miura 5 second stage is now fully integrated to kick off system-level testing under representative operating conditions. The second stage is at PLD\u2019s Teruel test facility for its qualification campaign, including wet dress rehearsal and a static hot-fire test.<\/p>\n<p>Reaction Dynamics seeks to raise $350 million. One of three prominent Canadian launch startups, Reaction Dynamics, said it is seeking to raise $350 million to grow its staff from 68 to more than 350 people, <a href=\"https:\/\/spaceq.ca\/reaction-dynamics-borealis-six-tonne-2031\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spaceQ reports<\/a>. The company is developing the small-lift Aurora rocket, which Reaction Dynamics hopes will reach orbit in 2028. Reaction Dynamics also announced plans to build a medium-lift rocket, Borealis, for a debut by 2031.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to Edition 9.16 of the Rocket Report! Lots of SpaceX-related news this week including a couple of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-640225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}