Rocket Lab barges giant Neutron ‘hungry hippo’ nose cone out of Warkworth

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).

Rocket Lab founder Sir Peter Beck inside a partially assembled Neutron fairing. Photo / Rocket Lab

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).

Locals wowed as Rocket Lab barged the giant “hungry hippo” nose cone out of Warkworth. Photo / Whangateau Traditional Boating Club New Zealand

The Neutron will be able to carry a 13-tonne payload to low-Earth orbit, and eight tonnes if going further afield.

A tug boat towed the barge with its space cargo. Photo / Whangateau Traditional Boating Club New Zealand

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.

How Rocket Lab came to be in Warkworth

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.

About 50 SailGP Technologies New Zealand staff joined Rocket Lab as Sir Peter Beck’s firm took over its Warkworth manufacturing facility after Sir Russell Coutts decamped his operation to Europe in 2023. Photo / Rocket Lab

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.

Built everywhere

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.

An artist’s rendering of Rocket Lab’s Neutron – designed to release cargo such as a satellite from its “hungry hippo” nose fairing before self-landing on a barge at sea. Image / Rocket Lab

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.

An artist’s rendering of Rocket Lab’s Electron, in service today, next to the Neutron, due for its first launch next year. The Kiwi-American firm charges about US$7.5m for an Electron launch. Hitching a ride on Neutron will cost about US$55m.

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.