This section is for projects which seemed promising enough so they got written up on this page, but then failed or were abandoned before they ever reached orbit, and also for private ventures which did reach orbit but never reached profitability, and were therefore shut down. Some of them have good ideas which might make some kind of comeback later in some different form. At first, only three rockets made the transition to this section: Vector Launch (which went bust without finishing a workable vehicle), Boeing’s Phantom Express project for DARPA (which was abandoned as too difficult), and Orbital/Northrop’s Omega (which they shelved when the Air Force showed no interest). Then we started seeing more bankruptcies: Astra (which occasionally succeeded but usually could not get their rocket all the way to orbit), and most sadly, Virgin Orbit, which actually had four entirely successful launches in six attempts, and could have been a valuable asset. The bankruptcy of Britain’s Reaction Engines Ltd was also sad, if unsurprising, as their long-shot idea for an air-breathing engine had the potential, if it worked, to drop launch prices lower than ever. This was followed by ABL giving up on orbital launch (which their RS1 had failed to demonstrate) and switching to military missile work.

Over time, I have gradually broadened the qualification criteria so that a few companies which are clearly not making it, but have not formally cancelled their projects or gone broke yet, can be moved here. That helps ease some of the overburden in the current and future sections. Three rockets in this category are the Bloostar from Spain, the Haas from Romania, and the Neptune from California. There are more that I expect will trickle over here as I lose hope for them, especially as the previously overgenerous venture capital supply continues to dry up.