During an earnings call on Monday, Rocket Lab chief executive Pete Beck announced that the company’s medium-lift launch vehicle, Neutron, would not launch this year.
For anyone with the slightest understanding of the challenges involved in bringing a new rocket to the launch pad, as well as a calendar, the delay does not come as a surprise. Although Rocket Lab had been holding on to the possibility of launching Neutron this year publicly, it has been clear for months that a slip into 2026 was inevitable.
According to Beck, speaking during a third-quarter 2025 earnings call, the new timeline has the company bringing Neutron to Launch Complex 2 at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia during the first quarter of next year. The first launch is scheduled to occur “thereafter,” according to the company’s plans.