July 18, 2025
Video unveiled of Astron's 100% reusable small rocket
UK rocket company Astron Systems has released a video of their 100% reusable rocket for small payloads with plans to disrupt today’s space launch industry.
With Aurora, Astron Systems are aiming to lead the way globally in bringing 100% rocket reusability to small lift launch, with the goal of unlocking a step change improvement in the cost, speed, and flexibility of services for small payload orbital launch and return. The Aurora rocket is a two stage vertically launched vehicle designed for the orbital launch and return of small payloads.
The company is backed by leading US based space tech investors Techstars Space as recent graduates from their accelerator program ran in partnership with the US Space Force and NASA JPL, as well as has received support and funding from UK investors and the European Space Agency.
The main difference between Astron’s rocket and those launching today is its 100% reusability. Historically rockets have been discarded after each flight with a new rocket needing to be built, though in recent years the industry has transitioned to partly reusable rockets like SpaceX’s medium-heavy lift class Falcon 9 where the booster stage and fairing segments are able to be re-flown, but the upper (orbital) stage is still expended each flight. The closest comparable rocket in the industry today to Astron’s is Rocket Lab’s small-lift class Electron which is an expendable vehicle, but which is fast moving towards booster reusability.
Eddie Brown, CEO of Astron Systems, said: “Aurora is at the heart of our vision for dramatically more affordable, flexible, and fast launch services for small payloads and bringing globally commercially competitive launch to Europe. We’re confident full rocket reusability is the inevitable future of the industry for all size launch systems, which is why we’re leading bringing 100% reusability to small lift rocket launch. There are a few others developing 100% reusable roc ket launch systems globally, most obviously in the USA SpaceX with Starship for heavy lift and notably also Stoke Space for medium lift launch with Nova, and we’re positioning ourselves to bring the same transformational improvement to the small lift rocket launch segment.”
On why Astron is working on 100% rocket reusability Eddie said: “The unit economics of a 100% reusable rocket are fundamentally completely different to with expendable launch systems. The two biggest cost drivers for a rocket launch are typically the cost of the rocket hardware that gets consumed, and the ongoing fixed costs associated with running the launch company and spaceport. Complete reusability enables production costs to be spread across launches, and cadence to be unconstrained by how fast you can build rockets. A fully reusable rocket design which also is designed for low operating cost will therefore be dramatically lower cost per launch than current rockets and therefore transformational for the industry. On top of that there is a growing market for returning payload from orbit, for applications like in-space manufacturing and new drug research which is unlocked by having a reusable orbital stage that returns to earth. We know the industry really wants this, from conversations we’ve had with various customers globally we’ve found over $1B a year of potential commercial interest for launching with us. And of course what we are building is also an important strategic capability. Europe actually has really good expertise for building systems like this and reusable heat shields, and 100% reusability is going to be what’s needed to be commercially relevant in the launch industry within a year or two of now. There is no excuse anymore to not be building rockets that are 100% reusable, and if you aren’t then frankly you’re working on dead-end technology that only governments will buy.”