Welcome to Edition 8.45 of the Rocket Report! Even though we are now two weeks removed from the catastrophic loss of the New Glenn rocket and its LC-36A launch pad, it continues to dominate discussion in the space community. This week, NASA said it nominally plans to fly Blue Origin’s test lander on New Glenn for the Artemis III mission, but officials quietly acknowledged that other launch vehicles, including Vulcan and the Falcon Heavy, could also get the job done. We’ll obviously be watching closely.
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. 
Isar raises funding, announces new launch date. German launch startup Isar Aerospace announced this week that it had closed a 270 million euro Series D to “drive global scaling and ramp up serial production,”
European Spaceflight reports. The company also said the previously delayed second launch attempt of its Spectrum rocket would now take place sometime between June 15 and June 21.
Seeking to scale … Isar Aerospace is developing a two-stage rocket called Spectrum, designed to deliver payloads of up to 1,000 kilograms to low-Earth orbit. The company launched its first Spectrum rocket in March 2025, with the flight ending in failure less than a minute after liftoff. The new funding shows the company is looking to a future of success. “Scaling hardware is arguably one of the most difficult tasks, and one that sets companies apart,” said Isar Aerospace CEO Daniel Metzler. “This funding will enable us to scale our automated production further.” (submitted by SvenErik1968)
Nova rocket making progress. Stoke Space completed “proto-qualification” of the first stage of its Nova rocket at its testing site in Moses Lake, Washington, in early June 2026,
NASASpaceflight.com reports. This milestone paves the way for the debut of the medium-lift Nova vehicle targeted for the end of 2026. Stoke completed 46 structural verification tests of its first-stage flight article, in addition to testing critical fluid systems, avionics, and ground support systems during a three-week period.
<small>Source: Ars Technica</small>
