Space Force greenlights Rocket Lab, Stoke for future launches

Rocket Lab’s Neutron reusable medium-lift rocket will launch primarily from Wallops Island, Va. (Image: Rocket Lab)

WASHINGTON — The US Space Force has given the thumbs up for two new launch firms, Rocket Lab USA and Stoke Space, to compete for future contracts worth up to $5.6 billion over the next five years, Space Systems Command (SSC) announced Thursday.

Both companies were awarded indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contracts under the service’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1. They join Blue Origin, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA), which were added to the pool of competitors last June [PDF].

In addition, Rocket Lab and Stoke each received a $5 million task order “to conduct an initial capabilities assessment and develop their approach to tailored mission assurance,” SSC said. “Tailored mission assurance is a tiered approach to the government’s breadth and depth of the launch vehicle baseline understanding and the associated risks to the mission.”

NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 covers launches to easier to reach orbits, payloads with less mass, and missions that are not absolute must-gos. Lane 1 launch providers also face fewer requirements to be certified by SSC than those qualified to launch the most critical national security payloads under NSSL Phase 3 Lane 2 — only having to complete one successful launch rather than two.

“Our Lane 1 goal is to bring in new partners to increase capacity, resiliency, and speed,” explained Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, program executive officer for SSC’s Assured Access to Space program. “These new partners bring innovative approaches and increased competition to our mission area.”

In December, Panzenhagen said that the Space Force intends to begin NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 launches this year. The service last October [PDF] awarded SpaceX the first Lane 1 task orders, worth almost $734 million for seven launches carrying payloads for the Space Development Agency, and one for the National Reconnaissance Office.

Lt. Col. Douglas Downs, SSC’s materiel leader for its Space Launch Procurement unit, said in the press release that the Space Force will release requests for proposals for new task orders “later this spring.” He added that SSC also has in the works “several more missions” that will be competed in fiscal 2026.

All totaled, the Space Force currently envisions about 30 launches under NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 through June 2029.

Before Rocket Lab and Stoke can be chosen for any of the upcoming launch task orders, they each must successfully complete one launch of their respective launch vehicles.

Rocket Lab’s Neutron medium-lift rocket is scheduled to make its debut launch from the firm’s new Launch Complex 3 in Wallops Island, Va., sometime in “the second half of this year,” the company said in a press release Thursday.

Stoke Space, a small startup established in 2019 just outside Seattle, Wash., expects a first flight of its medium-lift Nova rocket sometime this year.

SSC said the next opportunity for new launch providers to “on-ramp their emerging systems” to the NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 pool of competitors will be “in the first quarter” of FY26.