Beck said Wednesday that Neutron’s development remains “on an ambitious schedule.” In previous statements, Beck has highlighted Rocket Lab’s emphasis on quality and its reluctance to launch an “unproven product.”
“Our goal is to reach orbit on the first try,” Beck said last year. “You won’t see us using qualifiers to say we just cleared the field and claimed success, etc., and that means we don’t want to learn something on Neutron’s first flight that could be learned on the ground during the test phase.”
Rocket Lab has had great success with its Electron rocket, capable of deploying up to 660 pounds (300 kilograms) of payload into low-altitude orbit. Electron has completed 97 flights to date, with 56 consecutive successes.
With Neutron, Rocket Lab seeks to compete for a broader range of launch contracts, considering opportunities to sell launches to the U.S. military and satellite megaconstellation operators. Its lifting capacity in low Earth orbit is almost 29,000 pounds (13,000 kilograms).
“We’re building the long-term infrastructure of the program at the same time as we’re building our first rocket, so we can scale quickly, unlock global launches, and commercial customers, governments and our own future satellite services rely on that as well,” Beck said Wednesday. “But I also said that we are not going to rush into the field with unnecessary risks and that development programs like Neutron have their challenges.”
Neutron’s latest challenge has emerged just as the rocket’s potential customers are clamoring for more launch capacity. Market leader SpaceX is turning to the giant Starship rocket and will retire its Falcon 9 rocket from commercial service in the coming years, without which many satellite startups would not be able to put their payloads into orbit at an affordable price.
This puts Rocket Lab in the race to win business from satellite operators whose payloads don’t match Starship’s capabilities. But the competition is tough. Other rocket companies, such as Relativity Space, Stoke Space and Firefly Aerospace, are working on medium-range rockets to address the same market.
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