Launch Ingot ((top)) May 2026

For now, it is indispensable. Without ballast masses, the economics of rideshare collapse. You cannot fly a variable menu of small satellites without a fixed counterweight.

Until then, the next time you watch a launch webcast and hear the commentator say, “Payload deployment confirmed,” spare a thought for the last object to separate. launch ingot

For decades, lead bricks and concrete rings sufficed for test flights. But as the industry pivoted to (think SpaceX’s Transporter missions or Rocket Lab’s dedicated smallsat flights), a new problem emerged: variable mass. For now, it is indispensable