(Photo from Rocket Lab)
- With the hot fire complete and full qualification campaign now underway, the company said the Rocket Lab team is moving into full production of flight engines.
Rocket Lab USA announced Thursday that it has successfully hot fired its new rocket engine Archimedes for the first time, reaching a critical technical milestone toward first launch of the Company’s new medium-lift rocket, Neutron.
The hot fire test was completed at the Company’s Engine Test Complex within NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Hancock County.
The company said in a release that Archimedes performed well and ticked off several key test objectives, including reaching 102% power, anchoring the engine’s design ahead of Neutron’s first flight scheduled for mid-2025 – a schedule that would make Neutron the fastest a commercially developed medium-class launch vehicle has been brought to market.
With the hot fire complete and full qualification campaign now underway, the company said the Rocket Lab team is moving into full production of flight engines.
Rocket Lab is global leader in launch services and space systems. The Archimedes engine is expected to power Rocket Lab’s new reusable medium-lift rocket Neutron, a next-generation challenger to deliver a cost-effective, reliable, and responsive launch service for commercial and government missions.
Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck said in a statement that the hot fire test is a major development milestone for Neutron, accomplished on an accelerated timeline.
“Taking a new staged combustion liquid rocket engine from cleansheet design to hot fire in just a couple of years is industry-leading stuff,” Beck said. “From the day we started designing Archimedes we focused on delivering a flight engine, rather than early-stage prototype destined for multiple reworks and adjustments, so it’s gratifying to see this strategy bear fruit.”
