Rocket Lab confirms plan to bid for Pentagon launch contracts with new medium rocket

https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-confirms-plan-to-bid-for-pentagon-launch-contracts-with-new-medium-rocket/

“We’re excited to bid this time round for NSSL Lane 1, and we think Neutron is a really good vehicle for it,” Rocket Lab’s founder and CEO Peter Beck told SpaceNews.

The U.S. Space Force last week released a request for proposals from launch companies seeking to challenge SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin in the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 3 Lane 1 program.

The NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 program is structured as an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, enabling the Space Force to on-ramp providers on a yearly basis, and award individual task orders as needed.

The Space Force requires the next round of Lane 1 bidders to be ready for a first launch by December 2025, a timeline Beck says Neutron can meet.

13 points · 2 comments · view on lemmy.world

2 Comments

kinttach@lemm.ee · 4 pts · 1y (1 reply)

Wow, it’s impressive that by this time next year they expect to be flying customer payloads on Neutron.

threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 1y

There's still variants of Berger's law to contend with, but they've definitely kept up an impressive development pace with Neutron.