Palo Alto, Calif. — Cowboy Space Unveils Big Iron Rocket Design

A medium-lift rocket with no flight hardware yet built, a suborbital spaceplane rolling toward its first powered test above 80 kilometers, and a European reusable-rocket program whose future is in doubt — that is the lineup in Edition 9.17 of Ars Technica's weekly Rocket Report, published October 30, 2026 by Stephen Clark.

What did Cowboy Space reveal about its Big Iron rocket?

Startup Cowboy Space this week disclosed specifications for a new medium-lift launch vehicle it calls Big Iron, named for the Marty Robbins country-western song, according to the Rocket Report. Founder and CEO Baiju Bhatt presented the company's rocket architecture — plus plans for data centers in space — at an event in Palo Alto, California, the report says. A medium-lift rocket is generally defined by its ability to carry several tons to orbit, a class several established and in-development vehicles already target.

The report is blunt about where Cowboy Space stands relative to competitors: the company "lags far behind so many other launch providers nearing the launch pad with their medium-class rockets," and it "didn't have much hardware to show" at the reveal. Clark frames the timing against an industry backdrop in which demand for launch is outpacing supply.

"Maybe Cowboy Space is striking while the iron is hot as the space industry frets over demand for launch outpacing supply," Clark writes in the Rocket Report. "However, Cowboy Space lags far behind so many other launch providers nearing the launch pad with their medium-class rockets, and the company didn't have much hardware to show at this week's big reveal."

How close is Virgin Galactic's new spaceplane to flying?

Virgin Galactic's new Delta-class rocket plane left its Arizona factory on Wednesday, bound for Spaceport America in New Mexico, where it will undergo a test campaign aimed at suborbital flights to the edge of space, the Rocket Report says. The company has named the vehicle Apeiron.

The path to flight runs through several discrete steps, per the report: engineers and technicians at Spaceport America will finish the vehicle's avionics and flight software, followed by additional ground tests. Apeiron will then be mated to its carrier aircraft for captive-carry tests, a drop test, and ultimately a powered test flight above 80 kilometers — the altitude commonly used as the edge-of-space threshold. Virgin Galactic expects the first commercial spaceflight "early" in the second quarter of 2027, though the Rocket Report cautions that "like every other projected date in aerospace, this should be taken with a grain of salt."

The stakes for that schedule are higher than usual. Virgin Galactic halted commercial flights of its prior vehicle, VSS Unity, in 2024. With Blue Origin's retreat from the suborbital spaceflight market and SpaceX's planned retirement of its orbital-class Dragon spacecraft, Virgin Galactic is, in the Rocket Report's assessment, "the only company with a realistic chance of flying paying commercial passengers to space anytime soon."

What's happening with ULA's Vulcan rocket and its NASA contract?

The same Rocket Report edition's subheadline calls it "a good week for ULA with a big NASA contract and Vulcan nearing return-to-flight," placing United Launch Alliance among the week's notable movers alongside the smaller players making headlines with reveals and rollouts.

Why does ESA's reusable rocket testbed face uncertainty?

The European Space Agency's Director of Space Transportation, Géraldine Naja, said on October 22 that she was uncertain about the path forward for the agency's reusable rocket testbed, Themis, according to the Rocket Report, which characterizes the program's trajectory as "cursed." A testbed in this context is a demonstrator vehicle used to prove reusability technology rather than fly operational missions — the kind of program whose funding and schedule can shift with agency priorities.

What should readers watch next?

• Whether Cowboy Space produces flight hardware for Big Iron or further detail to back the Palo Alto reveal.
• Apeiron's captive-carry and drop-test results at Spaceport America ahead of a powered flight above 80 km.
• Whether Virgin Galactic holds its "early" second-quarter 2027 target for a first commercial Apeiron flight.
• Further comment from ESA's Géraldine Naja on the Themis program's status following her October 22 remarks.
• Additional detail on ULA's Vulcan return-to-flight timeline and the NASA contract referenced in this week's report.

For the full rundown of small-, medium-, and heavy-lift launch activity and the next three launches on the calendar, see the complete Rocket Report at Ars Technica.