// SPACE.COM — SPAZIO & SCIENZA
'There's tremendous demand': Rocket Lab raises price of Neutron launch from $55 million to $70 million
"The demand is a function of both a tightening global launch supply and our customers' confidence that Rocket Lab is the right partner to break the world's launch bottleneck."
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
The coming launch bottleneck has ramped up demand for a rocket that has yet to leave the ground.
Rocket Lab announced on Monday (Nov. 9) that it recently raised the price of a Neutron launch from $55 million to $70 million — an increase of more than 25%, for a ride on a rocket that's set to debut in 2027.
"Launch is extremely constrained, and that is exactly the situation we predicted," Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said on Monday during the company's third-quarter earnings call. "We saw a pent-up launch market on the horizon, and rather than provide early discounted launches, we set out to deliver a rocket into an environment with extreme demand at full price or higher."
Rocket Lab is best known for Electron, a workhorse small-satellite launcher that debuted in 2017 and now has 90 orbital missions under its belt. The 59-foot-tall (18 meters) expendable rocket and can haul 660 pounds (300 kilograms) to low Earth orbit (LEO).
Neutron is the company's entry into the medium-lift market. It features a reusable first stage, stands 141 feet (43 m) tall and can carry 14.3 tons (13 metric tons) of payload to LEO.
Rocket Lab announced Neutron back in 2021 and first targeted a 2024 debut for the vehicle. But various problems have cropped up over the years, pushing things back. Last month, for example, Rocket Lab announced that it was delaying the first Neutron flight from late 2026 into 2027 due to a manufacturing issue (which it says is now under control).
Such setbacks have not dampened demand for Neutron's services, however. During Monday's call, Beck revealed that Rocket Lab booked eight Neutron launches during the third quarter of 2026, which ran from July 1 through Sept. 30.
The contracts for those eight flights are worth "a total of roughly 515 million, including multiple missions on a new escalated base price of $70 million," Beck said. Neutron's first 16 launches are now sold out, he added, and bookings from here on will be for flights in the 2030s.