WSJ Tech News Briefing · Tuesday, September 29, 2026
The current crunch in rocket launch availability is prompting some companies to take matters into their own hands by developing their own rockets. One AI satellite company has announced plans to build its own launch vehicles, while another firm purchased an entire Falcon 9 rocket for guaranteed future launches.
“Yeah, we've seen some examples of companies that are literally taking matters into their own hands and saying, just like, we're going to build a rocket for ourselves.”
“I can think of one AI satellite company that announced pretty recently that they're also going to develop their own rockets, so they don't have to depend on third-party launch providers, you know, to get to space.”
“And then a startup called Portal Space Systems, basically just went to SpaceX and said like, hey, we want an entire Falcon 9 rocket because we want to guarantee that we can get a spacecraft from us into orbit in 2028.”