ABL Space Systems Shifts Focus from Commercial Launches to Missile Defense Amid Market Changes

Big changes are happening at ABL Space Systems. The founder of this seven-year-old startup shared a major announcement on social media. They’re shifting their focus from the commercial launch market to missile defense.

ABL has been working on a small launch vehicle called RS1. They also developed a mobile ground system designed to fit inside a shipping container. The goal was to introduce truly portable and responsive launch capabilities. The startup invested heavily in in-house technology, including a new rocket engine, and built infrastructure with three test sites, two factories, and a launch site across three states.

This growth hasn’t come cheap. ABL Space has raised a total of $461 million. Over half of that came from a $372 million Series B round in 2021, which valued the company at $2.4 billion.

However, ABL faced challenges getting the RS1 off the ground. During the first flight test in January 2023, the rocket’s nine engines shut down unexpectedly right after takeoff. This caused the rocket to fall back to Earth, hit the launchpad, and get destroyed. Before the second flight campaign in July, ABL reported a serious issue during preflight testing that led to the loss of the vehicle.

Despite these setbacks, founder and president Dan Piemont stated that these failures “advanced our technology readiness.” He explained that the decision to pivot was due to changes in the launch market. ABL did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for an interview.

“Over the past few years, we’ve seen our ability to make a meaningful impact in the launch industry diminish,” Piemont said. “To succeed in scaling up an orbital launch program, you need deep motivation around your mission from many stakeholders. As the launch market matured, those motivations thinned, and our path to making a big contribution as a commercial launch company narrowed considerably.”

At the same time, Piemont noted that they realized the U.S. is not well-equipped to handle missile threats. “We recognized that ABL’s technology could help solve these problems by offering new capabilities with more test ranges, more frequent flights, and more creative R&D. We became convinced that to address these needs, a company would need to be singularly focused on the mission, rather than treating it as just an additional line of business.”

He added that ABL sees “considerable opportunity” to use its existing intellectual property, including the RS1 rocket, for this new mission.

Missile defense is a significant investment area for the U.S. Department of Defense. The fiscal year 2025 budget allocates $13.5 billion for missile defense programs like tactical missile interceptors and counter-missile technology. Even a small piece of that funding could be beneficial for ABL, if they can navigate the challenging government sales environment.