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Cowboy Space has started to provide details around the launcher that it plans to loft before the end of 2028.
The rocket it calls “Big Iron” is slated to be 86 m (282 ft.) tall and 4.7 m in diameter, the company said on social media. The first stage would be powered by nine of its in-house developed 300,000-lb.-thrust Clydesdale engines. The second stage is then propelled by a single Clydesdale powerplant.
The liquid-oxygen and methane-fueled engine is now in development with hot-fire testing planned next year, according to the startup formerly known as Aetherflux. A prototype rocket should fly in summer 2028 with the first operational launch in December 2028.
As he unveiled the plans, CEO Baiju Bhatt said that timeline was a stretch goal that will require a lot of things to go right.
Cowboy Space says it plans to be able to deliver 15 tons of payload to sun-synchronous orbit. The upper stage would form part of the 1-megawatt data center spacecraft the company plans to deploy to support AI applications. The satellites would feature five racks of graphics processing units and six laser links, with solar arrays spanning 132 m when deployed.
Cowboy Space would also offer a Big Iron Express launch service to customers, for either rideshares or dedicated to a single customer, with an advertised payload capacity of 18 tons to low Earth orbit.
The rocket would feature a SpaceX Falcon 9-like reusable first stage.
The company plans to build five launch pads per launch complex, with one of them undergoing refurbishment while the others support flight operations.
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