Rocket Lab signs largest launch contract to date

Aviation Week's Aerospace Daily & Defense Report part of Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN), had an announcement from New Zealand launch provider Rocket Lab published last Thursday, October 1. 

Rocket Lab has signed what it calls its largest Electron launch service agreement to date, with a 20-mission agreement with Synspective. 

Synspective is the company behind the Synthetic Aperture Radars, like the one launched back on Sept. 18 (local time) covered here.  

Aviation Week added:

The Japanese synthetic aperture radar maker has already been a heavy user of Rocket Lab, with the latest agreement covering flights from 2028 through 2031. Synspective said it now has 47 launches booked with Rocket Lab, with 34 still to go.

The move comes days after Synspective said it was looking to deploy a second constellation to augment its StriX SAR satellites. The company now has 13 of its initially planned 30 satellites deployed, following a Sept. 26 Electron mission from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.

“Securing another 20 dedicated launches now gives us long-term certainty for our constellation expansion,” CEO Motoyuki Arai said in a statement.

Note that the webpage says this is "complimentary through Oct 08, 2026." They are a news service that has long been subscription-only, so their willingness to publish things like this as complimentary is a bonus. Just know that if it's after Thursday, Oct. 08 the first link probably won't go anywhere. 

This is big gain for Rocket Lab. Most headlines about them have been focused on the larger rocket system they're developing, the Neutron, but Electron is their income stream and keeping them in business. The last thing I published about the Neutron was just over three weeks ago, August 11, and the focus was on their goal to launch the new rocket before the end of this year. While they didn't say anything like, "2026 ain't happening; the new date is ..." the deadline is squeezing them, but they haven't given up on it. I think everyone remotely associated with the launch industry is pretty aware that if you don't get it right, something really big blows up in your face. Preferably in front of a camera. 

A Rocket Lab Electron rocket launches a Strix Earth-observing radar satellite for the Japanese company Synspective on Sept. 18, 2026. (Image credit: Rocket Lab)

Back when I worked in the electronics sector that sold into the Department of Defense, today's AWIN was the publisher of a paper magazine called Aviation Week and Space Technology that's still there. The name the older guys used for that was Aviation Leak.

An interesting-sounding SpaceX mission early Monday morning Pacific time

I've noticed the mission being launched at 4:17:21 AM EDT (1:17:21 AM PDT) Monday morning for a few days, and mostly because it has "one of those kinds" of mission names that scream "too advanced for simple people like you". I'm sure it means something to the agency launching it but barely anything to the rest of us. To copy the name directly from NextSpaceflight dot com, it's "Tranche 1 Transport Layer A". Spaceflight Now is a bit less weird summary, simply saying, "SpaceX to launch 21 data transport satellites for the Space Development Agency."

Then they even "do some 'splaining' " for us.

The mission, dubbed Tranche 1 Transport Layer A (T1TL-A), is the fourth mission sending production satellites into orbit for the SDA. This is one piece of a broad constellation — called the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) — designed to support the U.S. military and its allies through space-based capabilities, like missile tracking and secure communications.
...
The T1TL-A mission is one of 23 missions awarded to SpaceX as part of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 contract awarded in August 2020, which is managed by the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC). The previous missions from the SDA have already been launched:

T1TL-B – Sept. 10, 2025

T1TL-C – Oct. 15, 2025

T1TL-E – July 16, 2026

...

The 21 satellites flying as part of the T1TL-A mission were manufactured by Northrop Grumman and delivered to Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sept. 28.

Tranche 1 is the initial component of the PWSA constellation is expected to begin providing operational capabilities to the Department of Defense beginning in 2027. When complete, T1 will consist of 126 Transport Layer satellites, 28 Tracking Layer satellites, and four missile defense demonstration spacecraft.

A row of Northrop Grumman’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer satellites are shown in a warehouse prior to launch on the T1TL-A mission. Image: Northrop Grumman

This will be the 6th flight of booster #B1103 on SpaceX's 117th mission of 2026 and will have a Return to Launch Site landing attempt around 7-1/2 minutes after liftoff. 

You can't accuse the Space Development Agency of the Space Force of being too small in their vision.   

The SDA said the Transport Layer will consist of between 300 to 500 satellites in low Earth orbit from 750 km to 1,200 km in altitude. The SDA said once complete, 95 percent of the globe will be in view of at least two of the T1TL satellites at any given time.

They're not aiming for tens of thousands of satellites like Starlink is but having 95% of the planet in view of at least two T1TL satellites is not exactly slouching.  

 

EDIT 10/5/2026 @ 1:35 PM EDT: The mission didn't liftoff this morning and is currently listed as NET 4:17 AM EDT Tuesday morning. The launch was scrubbed in the final minute of the count as rocket was shifting into its automated startup sequence. No more information has been released. 

Saying Good-Bye to what feels like an old friend

Within the last week I received news that a company I've been a customer of since around the start of this century is closing down. 

The company is Sherline Products, makers of wonderful machine tools that are on the small side, but excellent for making small, "hobby-sized" projects. They're still taking orders for parts, accessories and the tools themselves, but they say:

We plan to continue building and selling machines, tooling, accessories, and replacement parts to the extent our remaining equipment, materials, staffing, and inventory allow through the end of October.

Some manufacturing operations, particularly those requiring our larger production equipment, will necessarily end sooner as that equipment is removed from service.

Because availability will change throughout this transition, some products may become unavailable before others. We appreciate your patience and understanding as our employees work to fill as many orders as reasonably possible during these final weeks of production.

If you've read here for a while, I've talked about Sherline tools and my adventures with them many, many times. If I can grab a short summary from myself, something I posted in September of 2014...

I was one of those guys who kept saying "one of these days" I wanted to get a lathe and into metal working. Mrs. Graybeard took me up on that about 10 years ago [2004] and gifted me my Sherline 4400 micro lathe for Christmas. I had never actually touched any machine tools at all at that point, so to say I didn't know jack is an understatement. After playing with that lathe for 6 months, learning how to make some chips, and reading the Yahoo Sherline group (now at groups.io) regularly, an ad appeared for a CNC Sherline mill surplussed from a school system across the state in Tampa. After a 350 mile round trip drive, I pulled a CNC Sherline mill into my garage. The only problem was that nothing about it worked, except that the spindle motor turned. Like my lathe on its first day, this was the first time I had ever touched a milling machine.  

That first Christmas present lathe was was my introduction to Sherline, and the CNC Sherline mill my introduction to CNC. I eventually bought a "CNC Ready" Sherline lathe, and learned to thread on that before I learned to thread manually on the Sherline. Not threading but just changing diameters is "falling off a log" easy. I now have three lathes: big and small non-CNC lathes along with that CNCed Sherline. I have two milling machines in the shop. Plus the CNC Sherline milling machine and a bigger G0704 that I converted to CNC via online posts.

This barely touches my 20+ year experiences with Sherline, making everything from an AR-15 from an 80% lower to engines that run from bar stock, guitar parts and more. 

With Sherline having been a market leader that has been turning out good stuff for 52 years, I fully expect the vast majority of hardware needs we may have will have multiple sources. Right now, they're running a 25% off sale, bigger than any sale I can think of, so if you're an owner, spare parts are probably still available.

A screen capture of Sherline's home page taken 10/3/26.

Small Space News Story Roundup 87

After yesterday's "three in one day" it's gone back to being slow on news. But there's some

NASA to pay to upgrade ULA's Vulcan to be human rated

A side note to the stories on SpaceX shutting down Crew Dragon missions not too long after their 2030 missions is that if Starliner becomes the vehicle, it has only been rated to fly on an Atlas V, and United Launch Alliance is down to the last couple of those left to fly. ULA has just six Atlas V rockets left. One of them will be used for the uncrewed Starliner 1 test flight, and then five subsequent crewed missions.

NASA has reacted to the increased demands on Starliner, to ensure a path for its astronauts to the Space Station as SpaceX nears retirement of its Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft. That would make Boeing’s troubled Starliner spacecraft likely be the only commercial means of launching US crews to orbit. (Apparently, since there are no other vehicles that have gone through even the level of testing that Starliner has).

During a news conference on Monday, Dana Weigel, manager of NASA’s Low Earth Orbit Program, said the space agency would pay $359 million to Boeing to help the company complete a rebuild of the reaction control system thrusters that have overheated in flight. It would also certify United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket for human missions. NASA also said it would exercise options to order two additional crewed missions on Starliner, bringing its total spaceflights on the vehicle to six. Any future Starliner flights beyond that would require a new rocket, like ULA’s Vulcan, as the Atlas V rocket is no longer in production. 

Blue Origin applies for a much higher launch cadence

Blue Origin, still in the process of rebuilding their launch complex (LC-36) on Cape Canaveral, in a draft environmental assessment released this week, seeks permission to significantly increase the vehicle’s launch rate from 12 to 50 per year. 

The proposal would include 50 launches of the rocket and 50 landings of the rocket’s first stage on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean. It would also allow up to 100 static-fire tests, one for each stage of the rocket for each launch. The proposal also covers recovery of the rocket’s payload fairing, which Blue Origin has not attempted on any of the three launches of New Glenn to date. 

Blue also has made mention of progress in the direction of the 9x4, (larger, more powerful) version of the New Glenn. 

A rendering of the 9x4 variant of a New Glenn rocket taking off. Image Credit: Blue Origin

Two down, one to go

A busy day even for SpaceX. 

The Crew-13 mission to the ISS went off on schedule, and apparently completely "by the book." While completely clouded out and unable to see or even hear a thing during the mission (11:10AM and for another eight to ten minutes), we watched it all on YouTube, through the Booster return to LZ-40 there on CCSFS. Within the last hour, Crew Dragon "Grace" docked with the ISS and the crew should have entered the ISS by now. 

The Transporter 18 mission from Vandenberg was during our grocery shopping run so we didn't watch that one live, but on YouTube when we got back and put everything away. Another one completely by the book, with every call during ascent on the expected time and flawless. The booster also successfully landed. I'll confess to boredom while watching the 130 satellites on the rideshare mission get deployed.

You will probably recall that Crew-13 was supposed to launch on September 12 but was grounded due to a leak in the Dragon capsule, specifically in the oxidizer system. In the intervening weeks, I've never come across an explanation of the problem and the fix SpaceX implemented. Until today. 

The launch was delayed from mid-September to replace a balky valve in the Dragon spacecraft’s propulsion system, a task that involved cutting into a propellant line inside the ship to swap out a faulty component. 

Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX’s vice president of build and flight reliability, pointed to the valve replacement inside the Dragon spacecraft as evidence of SpaceX’s commitment to fulfilling its contract with NASA. I think it's also evidence of SpaceX being extremely good at what they do. 

NASA announced a postponement for the Crew-13 launch in late August to give ground teams time to resolve an oxidizer leak inside Dragon’s propulsion system detected during launch preparations at Cape Canaveral. SpaceX traced the leak to a valve. The spacecraft was already loaded with nitrogen tetroxide, or NTO, the volatile, toxic oxidizer used by Dragon’s control thrusters in combination with hydrazine fuel.

Teams devised an unprecedented bit of spaceship surgery to replace the valve without draining the propellant and disassembling the spacecraft, steps that would have triggered a much longer delay. The fix involved cutting into the propellant line, removing and replacing the valve, then welding the line together again. It was the first time SpaceX has performed such a repair with a fully assembled Dragon spacecraft loaded with propellant.

“We looked at the plans, all of the data coming out of that, the welds, the leak, everything looks great,” said Dana Weigel, NASA’s program manager for the International Space Station. [We’re] really happy with how that repair was done.”
...
SpaceX’s preference to cut out the valve in place, rather than take a longer stand-down, kept the Crew-13 mission on track to arrive at the space station in time to replace Crew-12, which will return to Earth in mid-October after eight months in orbit.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft was inside SpaceX’s fueling and hazardous processing facility, known as Area 59, at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, not at the company’s usual maintenance hangar a few miles away.

Because the Oxidizer tank was full of Nitrogen Tetroxide, a very reactive compound (which is why they use it, after all), Gerstenmaier said, “We had to get special permission from the [Space Force’s Eastern] Test Range to do these activities, to do ‘hot work’ with nitrogen tetroxide on the vehicle.” (I'll note that instead of NTO, some of you might prefer something closer to the standard chemical notation of N₂O₄ over NTO, as I do).

As for the third launch of the day, tonight's Falcon Heavy mission at 11:53 PM, at the moment I'm planning to watch this one online. We're still under the cloud cover we've been under all day and the forecast looks to be much like for the Crew-13 launch today. About a 60% chance of acceptable weather. 

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launches with NASA’S Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Launch Complex 39A, just over a month ago, Aug. 30, 2026. Same vehicle on the same launch complex as tonight. (Image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)