The Neutron nose cone passes kayaker Rob Henson. Photo / Rob Henson, Facebook
Locals have been tracking the progress of a giant piece of Rocket Lab’s Neutron – which emerged from the Kiwi-American firm’s Warkworth plant on December 3.
The nose cone or “fairing” was loaded on to a truck in the early hours, with a scheduled power cut between 1am and 6am – according to the Mahurangi Matters Facebook page, with a Vector cherry picker holding up power lines to allow the oversized cargo to pass.
It was then placed on a barge that was photographed as it was towed by a tug boat down the Mahurangi River.
On December 6, the Whangateau Traditional Boating Club posted pictures of the nose cone being towed past Kawau Island with a caption saying it was “being barged to Northport Whangārei then to the [United] States via ship”.
The nose cone will top the 43m tall, 7m diameter Neutron rocket, due to be placed on a purpose-built Rocket Lab launch pad in Virginia in the New Year.
Founder Sir Peter Beck calls the fairing the “hungry hippo” because of its ability to open its “jaws” like the toy and release cargo (see video above).
Facebook user “Jack Flash” posted under one of the photos: “Mahurangi River, Kawau Island, Bream Bay, Northport, Mars. What a mission.”
In fact, the test launch in the New Year will be to low Earth orbit, but one day a Neutron could travel to the Red Planet.
Rocket Lab says the Neutron, which will go head-to-head with SpaceX’s Falcon 9, is “designed for mega-constellation deployment, deep space missions and human spaceflight”.
Other comments included “cool”, “amazing”, “Is this Shane Jones’ new toy?” and “Why not launch it there [to the US]?” (Facebook humour aside, Beck said there isn’t enough liquid oxygen in all of New Zealand to fill the Neutron’s tanks and that US Government and defence clients only want launches close to home).
The Neutron will be able to carry a 13-tonne payload to low-Earth orbit, and eight tonnes if going further afield.
It will dwarf Rocket Lab’s workhorse today, the 18m-tall, 1.2m-diameter Electron (which will continue to launch from Mahia and Virginia after the Neutron goes into service). And unlike the Electron, the Neutron will have self-landing capability.
Rocket Lab took over SailGP Technologies’ 6500sq m development and manufacturing complex in Warkworth – and took on its 50 staff – in late 2023, as Sir Russell Coutts decamped to Europe.
Founded in 2001 as Core Builders Composites (CBC), the Warkworth facility once made America’s Cup boats for Ellison’s Oracle Team USA.
In more recent years, it switched focus to building and maintaining the cutting-edge F50 catamarans used in SailGP’s global racing league.
Beck’s company also became a customer, which was only natural because his firm makes rockets out of the same materials: lightweight carbon-fibre composites.
Rocket Lab said at the time of the takeover that it would retain the Warkworth plant’s high-tech manufacturing gear, including autoclave vacuum ovens and computer numerical control (CNC) machinery – or industrial-scale 3D printers that can handle metal and composites. The kit would be used, in part, to accelerate research and development work on the Neutron.
The Neutron was originally slated to launch at the end of 2024, then the end of this year, before recently being pushed into 2026. The methodical Beck made no apologies for the delays.
“We’ve seen what happens when others rush to the launchpad with an unproven product and we just won’t do that‚" Beck said in November, in a possible reference to the constant explosions suffered by SpaceX’s Starship as the firm follows Elon Musk’s “move-fast-and-break-things” approach.
Neutron research and development, manufacturing and testing is taking place at multiple locations, including Auckland, Warkworth, Virginia, California and Mississippi – where hot-fire tests of the new rocket’s “Archimedes” engines have taken place inside a Nasa facility.
The new rocket is largely funded by Rocket Lab itself. The firm recently raised US$700 million ($1.2 billion) by issuing new shares.
But the US Air Force’s Space Force Space Systems Command chipped in with a US$24.35m grant towards the development of the upper stage, while the state of Virginia contributed US$45m to the Neutron manufacturing plant and launch pad.
On a November 10 Rocket Lab earnings call, Rocket Lab said total capital expenditure on Neutron would reach US$360m by year’s end – still chump change in traditional aerospace terms but an increase on the original estimate of US$250m to US$300m.
Rocket Lab’s Nasdaq-listed shares closed at US$49.06 on Friday for a market cap of US$26.2 billion.
Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.