A single Falcon 9 rideshare mission might drop 10 to 15 launch ingots into Low Earth Orbit (LEO). While they are tracked by the 18th Space Defense Squadron, they are considered “passive disposable objects.”
As the rocket fuels, the ingot is doing its only job: being heavy. It pushes the center of gravity aft, reducing bending loads on the interstage.
“It’s the only part of the rocket that never fails,” says veteran integration technician Dave Rawlings. “Satellites have bugs. Engines have leaks. But the ingot? It just sits there. It is perfectly, stupidly reliable.”
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.
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.
