WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab says it could launch its first Neutron rocket before the end of the year as it outlines a long-term vision for the company that involves its own satellite constellation.
In a Feb. 27 earnings call to discuss the company’s fourth quarter and 2023 financial results, Rocket Lab executives said development of its Neutron medium-lift reusable rocket was on schedule and budget, with a goal of a first launch before the end of the year.
“Right now, we have a schedule that closes for a launch by the end of the year,” Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said of Neutron. “But, we’ve got a lot of testing to get through.”
In the call, he outlined the progress the company was making on various components of Neutron, such as avionics and structures, as well as construction of Neutron’s launch pad, Launch Complex 3 on Wallops Island, Virginia. However, the company has yet to start hot-fire tests of the Archimedes engine that will power Neutron.
Beck said Rocket Lab was completing a test stand for Archimedes at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, allowing it “to support an engine by the end of March,” but did not disclose when the company expected to start firing the engine on the stand.
Those tests, when they do begin, will provide some clarity on the schedule for Neutron. “We’ll know more about how close to the schedule and timeline we are once Archimedes breathes fire and we complete a couple of other major tests,” Beck said.
An industry source, speaking on background, described a schedule of less than nine months from first engine hot-fire to first launch as “exceedingly optimistic,” citing development timelines for other vehicle programs where it can take years from first engine test to first launch. Later in the call, Adam Spice, Rocket Lab’s chief financial officer, acknowledged a Neutron launch by the end of the year was a “green-light schedule” where there are no…
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