&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "'Hungry-Hippo' fairing for Neutron rocket passes tests to take on SpaceX's Falcon 9")
Rocket Lab's partially reusable rocket Neutron has completed final qualification tests. With this, the company is gearing up to compete with SpaceX's Falcon 9. It is its newest launch vehicle, which is expected to fly for the first time early next year. With Neutron, the company has taken a new approach to launch vehicle reusability, with its fairing opening and closing like a clamshell, releasing the vehicle's entire second stage and payload. It is a Hungry-Hippo-style fairing, acting exactly like the popular board game. Rocket Lab's workhorse Electron rocket has already gained a hold in the small launch market. SpaceX has its own recovery and refurbishment plans with Falcon, with its booster stage carrying the second stage and payload to a point where the second stage accelerates the payload to its target orbit. The booster lands back vertically for reuse, while the fairing halves fall independently of each other and the first stage into the ocean.
Neutron can stand up to SpaceX's Falcon 9
Rocket Lab's Neutron, on the other hand, has a first stage that opens up and releases the vehicle's entire second stage and payload. The two halves then close back together and fall, and can be reused. With a smaller payload and lower cost, but similar reusability, Neutron can outrival SpaceX's Falcon 9. Now that the qualification tests are done, the fairing section has been sent to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia, where it will be added to the rocket.
Rocket Lab calls Neutron "the world’s largest carbon composite launch vehicle", adding that it underwent extensive tests. To be able to pass the tests, it had to withstand external forces as extreme as 275,000 pounds, and a rapid cycling of its open and close functions to check the durability of its motors. After it is attached to the first stage, Rocket Lab will perform a series of prelaunch tests, such as a static hotfire of the nine Archimedes engines. "A rocket like Neutron has never been built before, and we're doing it at a pace and price point that's going to bring the innovation and competition needed in today's industry," Rocket Lab Neutron VP Shaun D'Mello said in a December 8 statement.
