Rocket Lab’s “Electron” rocket at launch.
Following the success of its Electron rocket business, Rocket Lab, the second largest commercial rocket company in the U.S., has announced that it is going public to raise funds to develop a new generation of Neutron rockets. The company announced that it is going public to raise funds to develop a new generation of Neutron recoverable rockets.
“Rocket Lab is a joint venture between the United States and New Zealand. Founder Peter Beck once said, “If his company develops a recoverable rocket, he’ll eat his own hat,” indicating that he was sure their company wasn’t going to develop a recoverable rocket.
But he’s changed his mind. In a promotional video released by the company on March 1, Baker, seated in a suit at a tidy dining room table, cuts off a corner of his hat and throws it into a blender to be shredded into cloth. After tasting the hat fragment, Baker majestically announces his company’s plans to develop a new generation of recoverable rockets.
Baker’s big turnaround in strategy was signaled last year. Last year the company announced its intention to use parachutes and helicopters to try to recover their “electronic” rockets.
The “Neutron” rocket, now officially in design, will put Rocket Lab in a position to compete with commercial companies like SpaceX in the satellite launch market. These rockets can not only launch a variety of small satellites in clusters, but also transport materials to the moon, Mars and Venus, and even carry people to space travel.
The Rutherford Engine used in the “Electron” rocket is the world’s first battery-motor-driven fuel pump engine, and is manufactured using three-dimensional printing technology. Since 2019, the Electron rocket has become the second most commonly used transport rocket in the U.S. market, behind SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. But the “Electron” rocket is much smaller than the latter and is mainly used to launch square satellites and other small satellites.
In a press release, the company said, “Our ‘Electron’ rocket took the small launch program, and now we’re going to open up new business with our ‘Neutron’ rocket.”
The “Electron” rocket is only 18 meters tall. “The Neutron rocket is a medium-sized rocket, about forty meters tall, with a load capacity of eight tons, 25 times that of the Electron rocket, but still only 35 percent of the heavy transport rocket Falcon 9.
The company plans to go public on NASDAQ in the second quarter of this year to raise $4.1 billion to develop the “Neutron” rocket, which will be launched in 2024.
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