WALLOPS ISLAND, Va.—Rocket Lab’s launch pad for its Neutron rocket is open for business at Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS)—a major step for the rocket trying to disrupt the medium-lift market, and for the spaceport trying to boost the nation’s launch capacity.
Officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the oceanside Launch Complex 3 on Thursday. While pausing to mark the milestone, however, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said there’s still a lot of work to be done—and that the company is racing to meet its goal of launching Neutron on its first flight by the end of the year.
“We’re pushing as hard as we can…but it’s a rocket program. Right now we have a schedule that says we can do it, but we’ve got a number of really big critical tests,” Beck told reporters at the opening. “Nobody is waving the white flag here until the last hour of the last day.”
Scene setting: To find the spaceport on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, drive past cornfield after cornfield—then keep going. The beachside MARS is part of NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, about three and a half hours’ drive from DC. It’s just across a causeway from Chincoteague, a sleepy beach town best known for its wild ponies that roam the beach—though it’s also embracing its place in the space community. Souvenir shops sell “Virginia is for launch lovers”, and NASA-branded T-shirts, alongside beach gear.
Wallops previously hosted Antares launches from Northrop Grumman (and predecessor companies) to resupply the ISS. Since that generation of the rocket stopped flying in 2023, Wallops has mostly been the liftoff point for sounding rocket flights. Rocket Lab also has been launching its Electron rocket from Wallops since January 2023.
With its ability to carry 15,000 kg to orbit, Neutron is the largest rocket to call the spaceport home.
Neutron origin: In 2021, Rocket Lab announced it would build a medium-lift rocket to complement its Electron light launcher. Since then, the rocket’s specs have grown, and it now offers more power in a bigger package.
Rocket Lab VP of Neutron Shaun D’Mello said the decision was driven by geopolitics, specifically Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Almost overnight, Russian rockets were no longer an option for global customers. In parallel, satellites across the industry began getting larger, requiring a more heavy-duty ride to orbit.
Work in progress: While the launch pad is done and ready for its first mission, Rocket Lab is pursuing several infrastructure upgrades at Wallops for future launches, including:
- Expanding a nearby dock that facilitates the delivery of rockets; construction includes dredging the channel to make the dock accessible during more tide and weather conditions.
- Upgrading general base infrastructure, including power and water.
- Adding propellant tanks, to cut the recycle time between launches to less than 24 hours.
- Installing structures to stack the hardware more quickly on the pad.
Beck also said a long-term goal is to conduct crewed launches from Wallops, which would require an additional investment in infrastructure.
Amid the proposed infrastructure updates, NASA (which is under a severe budget environment for fiscal 2026) is reportedly considering closing some parts of the facility to cut costs, such as the cafeteria and visitor center. D’Mello said it’s “unfortunate that they’re happening, but the things that are being cut are maybe not essential for our success.”
Reusability: Rocket Lab is aiming to prove Neutron’s reusability almost immediately, with a goal of returning the rocket to a barge on its second flight. Building in reusability from the start—10 to 20 flights for each Neutron—is what will allow Rocket Lab to quickly ramp up its Neutron launch cadence, according to D’Mello.
“Most of the engineering team right now is spending time on landing the rocket, not launching it,” he told reporters. “That’s the target we set for the engineering team, is reuse as quickly as possible.”
The company is aiming to launch Neutron three times in 2026, and five times in 2027, giving manufacturing teams time to ramp up. In the following years, D’Mello predicted monthly Neutron launches.
“Beyond that, there really is no hard limit. We’ll be following the market,” he said. “Once we are at the point where we’re deploying our own applications, we’ll be calling the shots for how many flights we need.”
Traffic jam: As more and more companies want to reach space, the nation’s main spaceports are getting busy—and some worry they’re reaching their limit. There were 145 launches in the US in 2024, and the vast majority lifted off from either the Cape Canaveral area in Florida or Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Having two locations doing most of the work is bad for operators facing a traffic jam on the pad. It’s also bad for national security—the lack of diversification in launch sites could make it easier for an enemy to cut off America’s access to space.
“The Cape is an amazing place. You walk into the Cape and just feel it in your heart; it’s steeped in history. But the Cape is busy, and it’s only getting busier,” Beck said. “We’ve got a high cadence launch vehicle. As we thought about it, we can’t be constrained by the launch site. So let’s go down the road, where it’s a bit quieter. Yes, it’s a lot more work…but at the end of it all, we are Priority 1 on the pad, and it’s only us launching here.”
Rocket Lab, however, isn’t the only one to see the benefit of Wallops. Firefly Aerospace is preparing to launch its Alpha rocket from Wallops as soon as next year.
What’s next: Rocket Lab is working hard to launch Neutron on its first flight before the end of this year—but missing that target won’t lock the company out of the lucrative competition to launch national security contracts for DoD, D’Mello said.
“You just need to have flown before you bid,” he said. “While the end of the year is a solid target, it does not disqualify us from competing bids that might come up in January, February, March next year as well—as long as we’ve flown before then.”
