The Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital announced $150 million conditional loans to Stoke Space on October 26 and Rocket Lab on Tuesday, marking the first significant military support for launch competitors as SpaceX winds down its Falcon rocket program after 2028.
SpaceX stopped accepting commercial Falcon 9 orders beyond 2028 while prioritizing its Starship rocket for Starlink satellites and orbital data centers. The Space Force can order Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy through 2029, with launches extending to 2033, but military space officials worry about long-term launch capacity.
The Pentagon has maintained a policy since the 1990s of supporting at least two US rocket programs for national security launches. Current providers include SpaceX and United Launch Alliance's Vulcan, which has faced grounding issues from solid rocket booster problems, forcing the Space Force to shift missions to SpaceX.
The Space Force now forecasts needing up to 249 medium-to-heavy-lift launches through the early 2030s, more than double its expectation from two years ago. Space Systems Command qualified Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Stoke Space, Relativity Space, and Impulse Space to compete for national security contracts alongside SpaceX and ULA.
Stoke Space's loan targets construction of a second launch pad at Cape Canaveral for its Nova Block 2 rocket, scheduled to debut next year. Rocket Lab's loan supports increasing Neutron's flight rate and expanding maritime recovery vessels for the partially reusable rocket, also expected to launch next year.
Rocket Lab raised Neutron pricing from $55 million to $70 million per launch citing strong bookings and now has a backlog of 117 launches. "Launch is extremely constrained, and that is exactly the situation we predicted," founder and CEO Peter Beck said. CFO Adam Spice called the Pentagon loan terms "very attractive" and an indicator of military demand constraints.