Link here. With NASA awarding it a major contract yesterday to launch and operate a Mars orbiter by 2028, this detailed report today on the status of the company’s Terran-R rocket and its launchpad at Cape Canaveral is very well timed.

The report provides details on the testing status of the rocket’s first and second stages. It also describes the construction at the launchpad, with the horizontal assembly building just about finished. The key paragraph in the report however is the last:

With the second stage on its way to Stennis for testing, the first-stage qualification article preparing for structural load testing, and LC-16 rapidly approaching its final configuration, Relativity Space is entering the pivotal final phase of Terran R development. If this pace holds, the company will remain on track for a maiden flight by the end of 2026 — introducing a new heavy-lift launch system with a payload capacity significantly higher than SpaceX’s Falcon 9.

In addition to Relativity, there are a lot of companies that hope to do the first launch of a new rocket this year, including the American companies Rocket Lab and Stoke Space, the German companies Isar and Rocket Factory Augsburg, the Spanish company PLD, the South Korean company Innospace, the Australia company Gilmour, and the India company Skyroot. It is also possible I have missed one or two, there are so many.