Rocket Lab is constructing an even bigger, reusable launch vehicle called Neutron, and it’s targeting a price point near $50 million per launch to challenge Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“We’re positioning Neutron to compete directly with the Falcon 9,” Rocket Lab Chief Financial Officer Adam Spice said earlier this week, speaking at a Bank of America event in London on Tuesday.
The corporate announced Neutron when it went public in 2021, with Spice saying the rocket stays on course to debut in 2024. During its fourth-quarter report last month, Rocket Lab said it had begun producing the primary tank structures of Neutron, in addition to construction of the launch pad for the rocket. The corporate plans to conduct the primary “hot fire test” of an Archimedes engine, which can power Neutron, “by the tip of the 12 months,” Spice said.
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SpaceX advertises a Falcon 9 launch with a $67 million price tag, and Spice says Rocket Lab is aiming to match that on a cost-per-kilogram basis for satellite customers. Which means Neutron is targeting a “$50 million to $55 million launch service cost,” Spice said.
Spice also noted that Rocket Lab expects to fly the reusable Neutron boosters “10 to twenty times” each, in range with the present reuse performance of a Falcon 9 booster.
“We ultimately expect the margins to be in across the 50% range” for Neutron launches, Spice added. He estimated the fee of products for every Neutron to be at $20 million to $25 million, with “near half of that” coming from the upper, non-reusable second stage of the rocket.
Moreover, with SpaceX pushing hard to develop its massive Starship rocket, Spice alluded to the potential for the corporate to pivot away from flying Falcon 9 missions.
“We have no hard data on that but definitely, if that was to occur, that’d be an incredibly bullish thing for Neutron,” Spice said.
Within the meantime, Spice said Rocket Lab looks to take care of its position as “a dominant player” out there sub-sector of launching small satellites with its Electron vehicles. The corporate expects to launch three Electron missions within the second quarter, with two already accomplished, and is “on course” to launch 15 missions this 12 months, Spice said.
Greater than rockets
Spice also emphasized to the Bank of America audience that Rocket Lab is “way more than” only a rocket company. Indeed, the corporate’s acquisitions and expansion into constructing satellite components and spacecraft has turn out to be the majority of its quarterly revenue.
“All of this leads towards the largest opportunity in space, which is absolutely on the applying side,” Spice said.
“Lots of the businesses that we’re [launching to orbit on Electron] now are very unnatural owners of space assets,” Spice said, adding that “the very best owner of an area asset is someone who can launch.”
