Reusable Neutron Rocket Takes Flight for the First Time in Unofficial Animation

For a few years now, humanity has gotten itself used to seeing orbital rockets coming down to land, only to be used again. Reusable is how we now call them and, put in the news by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, are now expanding at an accelerated pace and will most definitely define the future.

One company working on a reusable rocket is called Rocket Lab. We’ve talked about it before here on autoevolution, seeing how the crew, established 16 years ago, is a very active one and already has two rockets in the works: Electron and Neutron.

Neutron, expected to take its first flight in 2024, is described as the perfect tool for “mega constellation deployment, deep space missions, and human spaceflight.” Both the first stage and the fairing are fully reusable.

Standing 40 meters (131 feet) tall and powered by a combination of liquid oxygen and methane, it should be able to lift 13,000 kg (28,660 pounds) of cargo to low-Earth orbit or send 1,500 kg (3,300 pounds) all the way to Mars or Venus.

The rocket can do this thanks to seven engines called Archimedes, capable of pushing a combined 1,300,000 lbf of thrust.

Rocket Lab plans to launch the Neutron from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility and Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. There’s quite some time left until that time, but here is the Neutron in action in an unofficial animation by Hazegrayart, in case you needed to feast your eyes on something other than Falcon 9s and Starships.