A high-up high-up rocket startup, which comes back to Earth with investors before going to private last year, has unveiled new details about its $ 44 million contract with the Defense Department, which supports the development of Rocket 4, a two-step, mobile launch vehicle with ambitions to distribute cargo across the world in an hour.
Almeeda, the California -based company, which was removed from the NASDAQ in June 2024, after its collapse of its shares, is now targeting the first test flight of Rocket 4 in 2026 and is in a vehicle position as a rapid distribution system for military cargo.
Estra’s CEO Chris Kemp said in an interview that the company intends to take advantage of its contract with the defense innovation unit to demonstrate a point-to-point delivery of about 1,300 pounds of cargo using Rocket 4. For years, military has expressed interest in using rockets for rapid deployment of significant supply at remote places, complementing traditional transport methods.
Estra is one of the several companies, which has been selected for the novel responsible space distribution project last year, which aims to protrin the commercial solutions for the accurate point-to-point distribution of the supply from the classroom through specialized vehicles.
A DIU spokesperson confirmed that the arrangement consists of two launch milestones: one subOint to point, and the other with the option of launching from a place outside the United States, because Estra is developing a mobile launcher.
“This is a multi-year attempt, with two performances planned around the end of the calendar year 2026,” said Diu.
Camp said the orbital launch would be likely to be from Australia.
Challenging development timeline
Estra faces a compressed timeline. Camp stated that the company is “working hard to test the stages of this year, not earlier than the end of Q1 2026 for the first test launch.” A separate military payload, Space Test Program STP-27B, is not going to launch earlier compared to 2026.
The DIU is a milestone-based payment under the contract, Estra needs to showcase that it is “de-digging” rocket 4 by providing qualification to engines and steps when sharing development data with the government. Kamp said that Estra is funding the development of Rocket 4 through private investment and revenue from its satellite propulsion business.
Estra’s vision Mirror makes up what the competitive ABL Space tried, but did not succeed in executing – a truly mobile launch system can be created that can be carried in shipping containers and can be operated from diverse places, not just from installed spaceports.
The Pentagon has long demanded rapid response launch capabilities outside the Major Spaceports. A specific application is highlighted on KEMP, which will use suborbital processes to distribute military drones in conflict areas using reente vehicles.
Kamp said that a large number of drones – depending on the size – can be transported to the other side of the planet in 45 minutes. He discussed the ongoing discussions with drone manufacturer Enduril to use his system in potentially performance, as well as interaction with the anonymous retirement vehicle providers.
Refund
The Pentagon contract represents a potential withdrawal for Estra, which began as a small aerospace research firm before pivying to launch vehicles in 2005. Its initial attempt to reach the orbit was prone to failures – both Rocket 1 and Rocket 2 failed in 2018, while the rocket 3 series launched only two successful out of seven attempts.
The failure of a high-profile NASA mission in June 2022 severely damaged Estra’s reputation, as the company was trying to establish itself after going publicly through SPAC merger in 2021. Estra’s stock was dropped by mid -2022, despite reaching a $ 2 billion evaluation and expanding the satellite propulsion to achieve Apollo Fusion.
The company moved private in July 2024, retiring the rocket 3 program to focus on the large rocket 4 and its growing satellite propulsion business.
