Another sign that the demand for launches to orbit is expected to be exceeding supply for a while is that Rocket Lab just raised the price of a launch on their Neutron from $55 to $70 Million. Neutron, of course, has never flown so it's more of an unknown than usual. Those quick with mental math or their calculator will confirm it's a substantial increase, over 25% (27.3).
"Launch is extremely constrained, and that is exactly the situation we predicted," Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said on Monday during the company's third-quarter earnings call. "We saw a pent-up launch market on the horizon, and rather than provide early discounted launches, we set out to deliver a rocket into an environment with extreme demand at full price or higher."
For those who aren't regular followers of the modern space industry and not familiar with the Electron, it's Rocket Lab's main rocket they sell rides to orbit on, and rather on the small side. It's 59 feet tall and capable of putting 660 pounds into low Earth orbit (LEO). That said, it has been successful entry into the launch business for Beck and Rocket Lab. It has been flying since 2017 and has 90 successful orbital missions under its belt. They have successfully recovered boosters for reuse, but I haven't seen numbers for how many flights any recovered boosters have flown.
The Neutron is their jump into the range of the Falcon 9. Neutron stands 141 feet tall and it can carry 14.3 tons (28,600 lb.s) of payload to LEO. For comparison, the Falcon 9 stands 230 feet tall and will lift 50,265 lb.s to LEO. In both spec.s Neutron is quite a bit smaller than Falcon 9. Neutron has been under development since 2021 and first flights were expected this year, until "a manufacturing issue" interfered, pushing the flights into '27.
During Monday's call, Beck revealed that Rocket Lab booked eight Neutron launches during the third quarter of 2026, which ran from July 1 through Sept. 30.
The contracts for those eight flights are worth "a total of roughly 515 million, including multiple missions on a new escalated base price of $70 million," Beck said. Neutron's first 16 launches are now sold out, he added, and bookings from here on will be for flights in the 2030s.
"The demand is a function of both a tightening global launch supply and our customers' confidence that Rocket Lab is the right partner to break the world's launch bottleneck," Beck said.
Artist's illustration of Rocket Lab's next-gen Neutron launcher in flight
while the booster is powering it. (Image credit: Rocket Lab)
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