Rocket Report: China may soon attempt booster landing; Rocket Lab does rapid response

Is SpaceX planning to end its Transporter program? Welcome to Edition 8.47 of the Rocket Report! We have now very nearly reached the midpoint of 2026, a year in which several new US rockets were advertised as potentially making their debuts. But now, we have to wonder whether any of them—Rocket Lab’s Neutron, Stoke Space’s Nova, Relativity Space’s Terran R, and Astra’s Rocket 4—will make it. I’d probably put the over/under at something like 0.5 of these launching. Please share your thoughts in the comments below! 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. Rocket Lab executes rapid response mission. Last Friday Rocket Lab launched the Victus Haze mission just 16 hours and 42 minutes after receiving the US Space Force’s Notice to Launch, beating the previous record by more than 10 hours, the company said. The launch was scarcely announced in advance, Ars reports. The only public indication of an