Rocket Report Relativity and Innospace soar; Stoke reveals a steampunk hopper

News Summary

  • The Washington-based company that is developing a fully reusable small rocket, Stoke Space, recently shared photos of its "hopper" vehicle that will test the ability of its second stage to land.
  • Afterward, Relativity declared the launch a success, and it is difficult to argue with this conclusion given that the company got so far on its debut with a 3D-printed rocket and a methane-fueled engine.
  • According to the company, it also demonstrated the world’s first successful launch of a hybrid rocket.
  • Stoke's approach is to test the second stage first and then move on to developing the first stage of its as-yet-unnamed rocket.
  • The company had targeted an engine firing of 118 seconds, but the hybrid engine burned through all of its fuel faster due to the Brazilian heat and humidity.
  • This sounds like great progress, but it's still a long road from engine testing to stage testing to launch.
Enlarge/ The Terran 1 rocket sure cleans up nice. 0 with Welcome to Edition 5.30 of the Rocket Report! A hearty congratulations this week to both Relativity Space and Innospace, both of which got [+6702 chars]