Neutron is a
partially reusable medium-lift two-stage launch vehicle under development by
Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab Corporation is a Public company, publicly traded aerospace manufacturer and List of launch service providers, launch service provider. Its Rocket Lab Electron, Electron orbital rocket launches Small satellite, small satellites, and ha ...
. Announced on 1 March 2021, the vehicle is designed to be capable of delivering a payload of to
low Earth orbit
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...
in a
partially reusable configuration,
and will focus on the growing
megaconstellation satellite
A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...
delivery market.
The vehicle is expected to be operational sometime in 2025.
It uses
LOX and
liquid methane propellant
A propellant (or propellent) is a mass that is expelled or expanded in such a way as to create a thrust or another motive force in accordance with Newton's third law of motion, and "propel" a vehicle, projectile, or fluid payload. In vehicle ...
on both stages of the vehicle.
Design
An earlier design of Neutron (March 2021), included a rocket tall with a -diameter
payload fairing. Rocket Lab stated that they intended for the
first stage of the vehicle to be
reusable, with landings planned on a
floating landing platform downrange in the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
called Return On Investment.
During the company's earnings call in February 2025, a plan to modify the offshore barge were unveiled.
On 2 December 2021, Rocket Lab unveiled a revised design for Neutron, featuring a tapered shape with a maximum diameter of .
Rocket Lab abandoned opts for a return-to-launch-site reusability profile and on a
floating platform called Return On Investment. Instead of a conventional
payload fairing that is jettisoned and recovered at sea, the fairing is integrated into the vehicle, and opens during stage separation to release the second stage and payload, and then closes before the first stage lands back on earth. The rocket features a unique interstage design where the second stage is "hung" from the first stage structure.
On 22 September 2022, another revised design was unveiled at an investor day, with the first stage engine count increased from seven to nine, and the engine architecture changed from
gas-generator to oxygen rich
staged combustion. This was done primarily to allow for a lower turbine temperature, while maintaining the same
specific impulse
Specific impulse (usually abbreviated ) is a measure of how efficiently a reaction mass engine, such as a rocket engine, rocket using propellant or a jet engine using fuel, generates thrust. In general, this is a ratio of the ''Impulse (physics), ...
. The engine will run with a significantly lower chamber pressure than other similar engines, at the cost of some performance. The number of fairing segments was reduced from four to two.
On 27 July 2023, new concept art on the Rocket Lab website showed a further revised design, with a reduction in the number of
payload fairing sections from 4 to 2, redesigned
landing legs, and small changes to the overall shape of the rocket. The number of payload fairing sections was reduced in order to allow for simpler fairing opening mechanisms while the landing legs were redesigned in order to be optimized for landings on
floating platforms, allowing for an increase in launch availability. The redesigned legs feature a folding mechanism similar to the
SpaceX Falcon 9 landing legs.
Operations
On 28 February 2022, Rocket Lab announced that Neutron will launch from the
Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) within
NASA's Wallops Flight Facility
Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) is a rocket launch site on Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, United States, just east of the Delmarva Peninsula and approximately north-northeast of Norfolk, VA, Norfolk. The facility is operated ...
on the eastern coast of
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
.
[Rocket Lab selects Virginia's Eastern Shore for rocket launch site.](_blank)
/ref> It was also announced that the company will build a 250,000 square feet manufacturing and operations facility adjacent to the Wallops Flight Facility.Archimedes
Archimedes of Syracuse ( ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Greek mathematics, mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and Invention, inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse, Sicily, Syracuse in History of Greek and Hellenis ...
engine occurred at NASA's Stennis Space Center
The John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) is a NASA rocket testing facility in Hancock County, Mississippi, United States, on the banks of the Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana), Pearl River at the Mississippi–Louisiana border. , it is NASA ...
in Hancock County, Mississippi.
Development timeline
Past and future development milestones for Neutron.
Applications
Neutron is designed to lift up to while expended, while landing the booster downrange and up to with the first stage returning to the launch site. Rocket Lab forecasts Neutron will be able to launch 98% of all payloads launched through 2029. Rocket Lab also intends the design
A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...
to be able to support constellation deployment, deep space missions, and eventually human spaceflight
Human spaceflight (also referred to as manned spaceflight or crewed spaceflight) is spaceflight with a crew or passengers aboard a spacecraft, often with the spacecraft being operated directly by the onboard human crew. Spacecraft can also be ...
.
Launches
The first flight of Neutron is expected to be in the second half of 2025.
According to Rocket Lab, Neutron’s expected debut launch in 2025 also puts the launch vehicle in a strong position to on-ramp onto the U.S. Government’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Lane 1 program, an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract valued at $5.6 billion over a five-year period. RFPs for the program opened on 30 October 2024 with approved new launch vehicles to be on-ramped to the program in Spring 2025.
In November 2024 Rocket Lab announced that it has signed a multi-launch agreement with a confidential commercial satellite constellation operator to launch satellite constellation
A satellite constellation is a group of artificial satellites working together as a system. Unlike a single satellite, a constellation can provide permanent global or near-global pass (spaceflight), coverage, such that at any time everywhere on E ...
using Neutron. Under the contract, Rocket Lab will launch two dedicated missions on Neutron starting from mid-2026. The missions will launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 3 on Wallops Island, Virginia. The launch service agreement for these missions signifies the beginning of a productive collaboration that could see Neutron deploy the entire constellation.
References
External links
Neutron update on YouTube (2 December 2021)
{{Rocket Lab
Neutron
The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , that has no electric charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. The Discovery of the neutron, neutron was discovered by James Chadwick in 1932, leading to the discovery of nucle ...
Reusable launch systems
Partially reusable space launch vehicles