Virgin Galactic's first Delta-class rocket plane, named Apeiron, left its Arizona factory on Wednesday for Spaceport America in New Mexico. There it will be prepared for a test campaign that ends with suborbital flights to the edge of space. The company expects its first commercial flight "early" in the second quarter of 2027. It halted commercial flights of its previous vehicle, VSS Unity, in 2024. Engineers will finish the avionics and flight software. Ground tests, captive carry tests with the carrier aircraft, a drop test, and a powered flight above 80km will follow. With Blue Origin's retreat from suborbital flights and SpaceX's planned retirement of its Dragon spacecraft, Virgin Galactic is the only company with a realistic chance of flying paying passengers to space soon. Separately, startup Cowboy Space revealed specs for Big Iron, a medium-lift rocket.

Cowboy Space Corporation, founded by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt, has launched Reason-1, its first satellite, to demonstrate laser power beaming from orbit to Earth. The satellite will collect solar energy in space and transmit it to a ground receiver using a kilowatt-class laser. The mission will test optical and thermal technologies for Cowboy's planned orbital data centres. The company designed and built Reason-1's laser systems, optical telescope, and beam-steering architecture in-house. Cowboy is developing a rocket whose upper stage will function as a 1-megawatt data centre in orbit. The company is also collaborating with NVIDIA to deploy computing modules in low Earth orbit. A follow-up mission, Reason-2, is scheduled for launch in 2027. The San Carlos-based company is backed by Index Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and other investors.