Family-level launch record combining canonical variants, historical missions, public cadence forecasts, and available payload performance specs.
Historical missions are grouped by actual launch year. Forecast cadence uses family-level launch-rate rows.
| Year | Historical missions | Forecast launches |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 | 0 |
Payload capacity by variant and target orbit when structured capacity rows are available.
| Variant | Orbit | Capacity | Altitude | Inclination | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No performance specsNo structured payload capacity rows are linked to this vehicle family. | |||||
Latest launched missions using variants in this family.
| Mission | Variant | Launch |
|---|---|---|
| Launch 2023-F02 | RS1 | Jan 10, 2023 |
Upcoming mission rows with announced launch timing.
| Mission | Variant | Announced |
|---|---|---|
No forecasted missionsNo upcoming announced mission rows are linked to this vehicle family. | ||
Canonical variants rolled up into this launch vehicle family.
| Variant | Stages | Missions | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
RS1 | Not stated | 1 | Retired |
Lockheed Martin signed a 2021 contract with ABL Space Systems to launch as many as 58 missions on ABL’s RS1 rocket through 2029.
Lockheed Martin selected the RS1 rocket to perform its U.K. Pathfinder launch from the SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands later in 2023.
Lockheed Martin is a strategic investor in ABL Space Systems and signed a contract in April 2021 for as many as 58 RS1 launches through the end of the decade.
RS1 is designed to launch from facilities with minimal infrastructure.
Lockheed Martin selected RS1 to perform its U.K. Pathfinder launch from the SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands later in 2023.
Lockheed Martin signed a contract in April 2021 for as many as 58 RS1 launches through the end of the decade.
ABL Space Systems’ first flight of the RS1 rocket failed to reach orbit on 2023-01-10.
Lockheed Martin will use ABL Space Systems’ RS1 rocket for the mission it moved to SaxaVord, with the mission tentatively scheduled for 2023.
Lockheed Martin signed a 2021 contract as an anchor customer for up to 58 RS1 launches over the next decade and selected RS1 for a U.K. Pathfinder launch from the Shetland Islands in 2023.
ABL’s upper stage for an attempted RS1 launch was destroyed in January 2022 at the Mojave Air and Space Port due to an upper stage engine hard start that led to a fire and complete stage failure 20 seconds later.
ABL completed a new RS1 upper stage and ran acceptance tests in May 2022 to correct the hard-start flaw.
Lockheed Martin selected the RS1 rocket for the U.K. Pathfinder launch from the Shetland Islands, which is now projected for 2023.
ABL Space Systems performed a static-fire test of the first stage of its RS1 rocket on 2022-07-09 at the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Kodiak Island.
Lockheed Martin is an anchor customer of ABL Space Systems and signed a contract last year for up to 58 RS1 launches over the next decade.
Amazon plans to test two Project Kuiper prototype satellites on an ABL Space Systems RS1 rocket as soon as late in 2022.
ABL Space Systems plans to build the RS1 rocket and launch system in California before shipping them by sea to Scotland for the UK Pathfinder mission.
ABL Space Systems had planned RS1’s first launch from Kodiak Island in Alaska in early 2022 but now aims to debut the rocket in 2022-06-05.
The destroyed RS1 second stage experienced a hard start in its E2 engine that created a fire at the base of the stage and led to complete failure about 20 seconds later.
ABL Space Systems shipped the tested RS1 second stage to its launch site in Kodiak, Alaska.
ABL Space Systems completed acceptance testing of the second stage of its RS1 vehicle at its Mojave, California test site and performed a static-fire test of the stage.