Rocket Lab announced on Wednesday that its Neutron launch vehicle won't fly until 2027, citing an issue discovered during manufacturing of the rocket's carbon composite structures. The announcement confirmed what many in the space industry had already suspected. The company's August update had still expressed hope of delivering the first Neutron rocket to its launch pad at Wallops Island, Virginia, before the end of this year, a schedule that would almost certainly have pushed the first flight into 2027.
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck identified a manufacturing defect in the propellant domes at the ends of the first stage tanks as the cause of the latest slip. Engineers found voids, or air pockets, between carbon fiber layers. Because Neutron's first stage is the "largest pressurized structure ever made out of carbon composite," the company has had to develop new out-of-autoclave curing processes. Beck said the voids "don't necessarily mean that the dome would fail in flight," but the company only proceeds when it believes the system has adequate margins.
The voids traced back to a design change made after a Neutron propellant tank ruptured during a hydrostatic pressure test in January. Rocket Lab thickened some carbon composite sections, and those thicker areas is where the voids formed. The company said the problem appears solved after modifying the manufacturing process again, and an aft propellant dome made with the updated procedure passed inspection.
Beck said the fix gives the team complete confidence to move forward with a new forward dome. However, the timeline for that work, combined with the time already lost, has pushed the first launch into 2027. The delay underscores the difficulty of scaling carbon composite manufacturing for large aerospace structures.
Source: Ars Technica · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing