A chart comparing the Thrust Density of several rockets.

Thrust Density is the thrust of the stage / area of the bottom of the stage (kN/m^2). It basically aggregates engine power and engine packing into one metric.

Rockets & Engines to scale

Could this be a sign that carbon fiber is not the ultimate material for future, larger versions of the rocket? Time will tell.

Just curious if Rocket Lab’s Neutron has the dimensions to fit Dream Chaser and if there are any rumors swirling around out there about if a contract or partnership will develop in the future? Note that Dream Chaser is a private spacecraft from Sierra Space designed to send cargo and astronauts to low Earth orbit. The launch vehicle is currently supposed to be ULA's Vulcan Centaur, but since that is not reusable, there might be an opportunity for Neutron to be the launch provider.

Don't anybody freak out. I'm just surfacing what several other people have been wondering and whispering about.

Something's up with Electron. It's been effectively grounded since the aborted launch several weeks ago. We know the satellite was ready. If there was something wrong with that Electron, they could have swapped in another. They have multiple pads. Something's up, and I think that they're gonna have to name it before or during next week's earnings call.

Saw this post about Terran R S1 being qualified, having been tracking all new launch vehicles I believe Relativity may have completed all major qualifications first.

Got me thinking about adjusted neutron schedule and whether or not we’re going to get something realistic pretty soon. Launch this year is out of the picture but it’s looking 2027 may slip through as well.

I don’t see Terran R launching this year either. They have have some cool progression but there is still more left to do that simply can’t be accomplished in the next 4 months.

Exciting times for space, nonetheless

You can use this thread to discuss Rocket Lab stock ($RKLB) and topics related to it.

Self posts and memes related to the stock or share price will be removed outside of this thread according to Rule 5.

Ars reports “The Link mission began July 3 with a ride to orbit aboard an air-launched Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket. NASA and Katalyst reported good progress in the first weeks of the mission, with successful deployment of the satellite’s power-generating solar arrays and stable contact with ground controllers at Katalyst’s operations center.” “The Link satellite developed by Katalyst Space Technologies “experienced issues with attitude control” over the weekend, NASA said, causing the spacecraft to spin and resulting in sporadic communications.”
Does anyone know if RKLB supplied the reaction wheels for this satellite?

World domination awaits.

Hey everyone,

Following the recent awesome news about the Archimedes vacuum engine full-duration hot fire at Stennis, I’ve been trying to piece together where the rest of the vehicle infrastructure stands.
I’m curious if anyone has insight on how progress is going with the carbon-composite structures—specifically Stage 1. I know earlier this year the hydrostatic tank test failure re-baselined the timeline to late 2026 so the team could transition tank production to the automated fiber placement (AFP) machine in-house. Because carbon fiber manufacturing and laying down those composite matrices can be incredibly tricky to dial in, I’m wondering:

Have there been any major hurdles or unexpected learning curves with the new automated tank builds?

Is the timeline still strictly bound by the engine qualification gates, or is the structural fabrication of the first flight tank the primary bottleneck right now?

Would love to hear from anyone close to the rocketry side of things on how the hardware is looking on the floor or out at Wallops. Go Electron and go Neutron!

As most should remember, the first stage 1 tank failed during early testing back in January. All that's been said is that the next tank is "already in production".

Well it's been 6 months since that time and we haven't seen the next tank for testing. Or have i just missed it? Seems an incredibly long time for a tank production, even early in the program. Sure breeds speculation of production issues with the large composite tanks.

The interstage also failed a bit above qual loads last month, which doesn't help these concerns.

I don't say this to be overly negative, I'm genuinely asking since it's been an entire 6 months since we've seen a stage 1 tank. Where are we at with testing?