Reusable launch: solved.
Reusable reentry: not.
- –Reentry is going from a rarity to a routine operation.
- –In August 2026 the White House directed U.S. ranges to support over 1,000 launches and reentries a year by 2030. [5]
- –Nearly every capsule that comes back today is protected by a heat shield that burns away on the way down.
In the past, the government was the only entity that needed heat shields. That’s changing dramatically today.
U.S. Air Force Rocket Cargo goal: a C-17’s load, anywhere on Earth in about 90 minutes. [7]
Hypersonic flight tests a year: the Pentagon’s MACH-TB 2.0 target cadence. [8]
For two decades, cargo came home the traditional way.
Planned window for the ISS deorbit. [1]
SpaceX has reportedly stopped booking Falcon 9 launches past this year. [2]
One pipeline becomes three.
U.S. commercial space stations in development. [3]
AXIOM · BLUE ORIGIN · GRAVITICS · VAST · VOYAGER
Commercial return vehicles flying or in development. [4]
CAPSULES · SPACEPLANES · CARGO RETURN
Autonomous spacecraft that manufacture in orbit and come home on their own. [4]
R&D · PHARMA · SEMICONDUCTORS
Every vehicle that comes home needs a heat shield.
Today’s shields are slow to make and built for a single flight.
Qualifying them is slow, scarce and expensive.
None of that scales to 1,000 a year.
Building something that has to come home?
info@raidenspace.com