NASA and Rocket Lab Enter a New Era With the Neutron Rocket

With the goal of further expanding its reach in space missions, NASA has signed an agreement with Rocket Lab USA, Inc. to integrate the Neutron rocket into the VADR program. This is a program to procure launch services at competitive prices and reduce mission requirements for spacecraft that have not yet been launched into orbit. Neutron is a medium-range launch vehicle manufactured by Rocket Lab USA that is partially reusable and powered by nine 3D-printed Archimedes engines designed to increase the efficiency and flexibility of space launches.

This is not the first time the company has experimented with short-range launches. Before Neutron, Rocket Lab USA launched another spacecraft, Electron, into orbit as part of NASA missions and the VADR program. With Electron, the VADR PREFIRE missions were completed in just two weeks, and a double quick launch was initiated in May 2023 for the VADR TROPICS missions. Thanks to Neutron’s versatility and efficiency, Rocket Lab can now expand its field of research to space missions and enter previously unexplored orbits.

A stylized depiction of Neutron

The Archimedes Engine and the Neutron Rocket

As already mentioned, Neutron consists of no fewer than nine Archimedes engines. This is the reusable rocket engine developed by Rocket Lab USA, whose components were manufactured using a 3D printing process. In May 2024, the company began an intensive stress test campaign at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi on the Archimedes engine’s components, subsystems and overall system to verify its performance in the ignition, stable operation and shutdown phases. Numerous activations of the engine system were then carried out until the first hot ignition, i.e. ignition at full power.