The European Space Agency awarded The Exploration Company a 760 million euros ($880 million) service contract to support the development of Nyx, a demonstration mission, and two operational cargo missions. "We started the development of Nyx with private funding only, and we are now at a technical maturity level where ESA and Member States’ public funding can support us massively, as anchor clients, to help us finalize the vehicle," Huby said.

The Exploration Company also announced a $450 million Series C funding round. The company will continue development of the Storm rocket engine, projected to have a thrust of about 400,000 pound-feet. This would power a reusable rocket intended to launch 40 metric tons in reusable mode and 60 tons in expendable mode. The expendable Ariane 6 rocket has a maximum lift capacity of about 20 tons. "If Europe wants to stay relevant—we will not be relevant without a massive rocket at a massive cadence," Huby said. "And to do that we need a massive engine, and right now this is something we just do not have in Europe." An aggressive timeline for the rocket’s development is 2033.

NASA awarded a "Launch Services II" contract to Relativity Space, allowing the Terran R rocket to be on-ramped into the agency’s launch services program. The Terran R launch service will be available to NASA for future missions, including science, research, and human spaceflight. NASA still wants to see Terran R, which has yet to debut, demonstrate success in flight. The current ordering period covers missions through December 2032.

Next three launches:

September 13: Falcon 9 | O3b m POWER 11, 12, 13 | Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. | 18:49 UTC

September 15: Vega C | Sentinel-3C, Flex | Guiana Space Center, French Guiana | 01:21 UTC

September 15: Zhuque-2E | Unknown Payload | Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China | 06:25 UTC