Rendering of Rocket Lab’s Neutron medium-lift rocket. Credit: Rocket Lab
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab continues to push for a first launch of its Neutron rocket before the end of the year, but company executives acknowledge that schedule has no margin for error.
In an Aug. 7 earnings call to discuss the company’s second quarter financial results, Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, discussed the progress the company was making on the medium-lift reusable launch vehicle as the company works towards a first launch.
“We continue to push extremely hard for an end-of-year launch,” he said. “We continue to run a green-light schedule with Neutron, which means every single thing needs to go to plan for the schedule to hold.”
He seemed to suggest that it was unlikely everything would go according to plan. “We’re not going to rush and take stupid risks to get a launch of Neutron before it’s ready. In the context of the life cycle of the vehicle and the program, a couple of months here or there is completely irrelevant.”
He added that “there’ll be no cutting corners here to just rush to the pad for an arbitrary deadline.”
Beck didn’t identify any specific issues that might cause the launch to slip into next year, but said that Rocket Lab was still working to retire risks with the rocket’s propulsion system as well as integration and testing of the first stage.
Rocket Lab has built out the infrastructure needed for Neutron, including production and test facilities. The company is now producing one Archimedes engine every 11 days, with the company performing three to four engine tests a day, including those running the engine for a full mission duration.
“From a performance perspective we’re verry happy,” he said of Archimedes. The challenge, he said, was testing the engine for performance not just during ascent but in later reentry and landing burns. “It’s a much more complicated qualification program to get through because we’re qualifying ascent and descent at the same time.”
Also nearly complete is the Neutron launch pad, Launch Complex 3, at Wallops Island, Virginia. Rocket Lab will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the facility on Aug. 28. “Launch Complex 3 is set to be a hugely important national asset,” he said, citing bottlenecks at other major launch sites. “It shows how important launch site diversity really is.”
Beck said the company was sticking with plans for a gradual increase in Neutron launches, with one in its first year followed by three in its second year and five in its third. “It just takes time to roll in the learnings between flights,” he said when asked if there was any consideration of accelerating that schedule.
He has set a high bar for the performance of Neutron on its inaugural launch. “You’re not going to hear some rubbish about just clearing the pad is a success,” he said. “For us, a successful launch of Neutron will be successfully getting to orbit.”
There will be more latitude on the booster’s return, with Rocket Lab planning a “soft splashdown” in the ocean on the first flight before using a ship for future booster landings. “There’s a lot to learn there,” he said. “If we don’t soft-splashdown on the first flight, I think there’s a little bit of tolerance there for learning.”
Sizing up Golden Dome
Rocket Lab, like most companies in the space industry in the United States, is considering how it might play a role in the Golden Dome missile defense system, even though there are few details yet on the system’s architecture.
“The $175 billion Golden Dome program could prove to be one of DOD’s largest procurements to date and we’re in a great position to capitalize on opportunities here,” Beck said.
A key factor is the company’s pending acquisition of Geost, a manufacturer of sensor payloads for military spacecraft. That deal has passed an antitrust review and should be finalized “shortly,” he said. “It will secure the domestic supply chain of this critical technology for next-generation missile defense initiatives.”
He added he believed there will be roles for Rocket Lab beyond providing sensors or missile-warning satellites for Golden Dome. That includes both the Electron and Neutron rockets as well as existing contract to build communications satellites for the Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer.
One example Beck offered is HASTE, the suborbital version of Electron. He predicted demand for HASTE may increase to support testing and validation of a missile defense system created for Golden Dome. “We’re expecting that to continue to grow,” he said of the market for HASTE.
Jeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews.
He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science…
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