Jane Edwards
Rocket Lab USA has started the test campaign for a new 3D-printed reusable engine for its Neutron medium-lift rocket at its test stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
The company said Monday the test campaign was initiated following the completion of the first full assembly of the Archimedes rocket engine.
The Archimedes engine, which will undergo full-rate production at the company’s Long Beach, California-based manufacturing facility, runs on liquid oxygen and methane and is designed to lift up to 13,000 kilograms of payload. It can produce 165,000 pound-force and be reused for up to 20 launches.
The campaign will include component, subsystem and all-up system tests to assess the engine’s steady-state, transient startup and shutdown performance.
“Having a completed Archimedes engine on the test stand is an inflection point in Neutron’s development program. Now we’ve entered the home stretch where we breathe fire and refine the engine in preparation for first flight,” said Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab.
The company expects the maiden flight of the Neutron rocket to occur no earlier than mid-2025.
Rocket Lab said it has completed the launch vehicle’s Stage 1 and 2 tanks, reusable Stage 1 structure and the carbon composite flight structures for the rocket’s fairing panels and is advancing infrastructure development work at its designated launch site at Wallops Island in Virginia.
