Rocket Lab officially delays its bigger rocket debut to next year

Rocket Lab is no longer planning on getting its Neutron rocket to the launch pad for its first flight by the end of this year. Not a surprise to many, but the debut flight of what could be a real Falcon 9 competitor is now scheduled for Q1 of 2026.

In its Q3 earnings call, Rocket Lab announced the delay, citing its goal to give the first flight every chance of being successful. We can now expect Neutron to be at its launch site in Virginia in Q1 of 2026, with the launch sometime after.

This wasn’t a surprise, as Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s CEO, stated this summer that getting Neutron to launch by the end of 2025 would require a “green-light schedule” and couldn’t afford any setbacks. Setbacks, however, are one of the most common things that come up in new rocket developments.

Beck didn’t state a specific reason for the new date, just stating that more overall testing was required. “With all of the hardware in front of us now and significant testing programs underway across all parts of the vehicle, we can say we need a little bit more time to mitigate the risks,” he said on the call.

Neutron is Rocket Lab’s answer to the less-than-stellar list of customers its smaller Electron rocket has received. While still a success in providing dedicated launch services to SmallSat operators, the industry as a whole has decided it doesn’t mind the drawbacks of non-dedicated, rideshare missions that SpaceX provides.

Neutron has been designed to not just be reusable from the start, but also capable of launching the vast majority of payloads on the market right now. Rocket Lab’s hope is that it can start to compete head-to-head with the Falcon 9 for medium-sized payloads when it comes online.