Rocket Lab targets 1,000th Rutherford engine launch as AM scales from Electron to Neutron

Rocket Lab disclosed that more than 800 Rutherford engines have flown to space aboard its Electron small launch vehicle, with the company targeting a total of 1,000 launches before the end of 2026. The milestone underscores how central additive manufacturing has been to the company’s production strategy since its founding—and how that strategy is now being carried forward into its next-generation platform.

The Rutherford engine is widely recognized as the first 3D printed, electric pump-fed orbital rocket engine, with primary components including the combustion chamber, injectors, pumps, and main propellant valves all produced additively. The ability to print those components rapidly and iterate quickly has been a key factor in reaching production volumes that few rocket programs have matched at this pace. Nine Rutherford engines power each Electron first stage, meaning the 800-engine figure represents nearly 90 individual launch vehicles’ worth of additively manufactured propulsion hardware.

Archimedes carries AM into medium-lift

The same philosophy underpins the Archimedes engine, which will power Rocket Lab’s partially reusable Neutron medium-lift vehicle. Like Rutherford, Archimedes features 3D printed turbo pump housings, a thrust chamber, valve housings, and engine structural components. As an oxidizer-rich staged-combustion-cycle engine running on liquid oxygen and methane, Archimedes is a unique design in its thrust class, built for maximum reusability, with a minimum reuse target of up to 20 launches per engine. At full power, each Archimedes engine produces 165,000 lbf (733 kilonewtons), for a combined first-stage total of approximately 1,450,000 lbf across nine engines. A vacuum-optimized variant of Neutron’s second stage shares all major components with the first-stage engine and is capable of up to 202,300 lbf (900 kN) thrust, designed for up to six restarts in orbit.

Rocket Lab completed the first full assembly of Archimedes and began an intensive test campaign at its dedicated stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, covering transient start-up, steady-state, and shutdown performance validation. Production of subsequent Archimedes engines is continuing in parallel, with long-lead 3D printed components already manufactured and undergoing checkouts ahead of integration at Rocket Lab’s Engine Development Complex in Long Beach, California.

“Having a completed Archimedes engine on the test stand is an inflection point in Neutron’s development program,” said Peter Beck, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rocket Lab. “What we’ve taken to the test stand is very close to a flight-like engine, and with all of our production infrastructure standing up alongside the engine’s development, we’re in a prime position to make quick iterations to Archimedes for a rapid development and qualification campaign. We took the time to not only bring a mature design to the stand that has been thoroughly tested at the component level, but also to stand up the experienced team, manufacturing line, and test facilities required to support long-term production of Archimedes.”

Production scale as a strategy

Beck has consistently pointed to production scalability — not just printability — as the core benefit of Rocket Lab’s AM investment. “Often with engine development plans, there can be a rush to get a minimum viable product to the stand, after which you have to spend years in redesign and iterative testing to get the performance you need, let alone being able to reproduce it reliably on a large production scale,” he said.

Having launched more than 800 Rutherford engines, the company has built one of the most extensive flight-proven datasets for additively manufactured rocket propulsion in the industry — a foundation it expects to leverage directly as Archimedes moves toward flight qualification and series production at its Long Beach facility.

To support its growing production requirements, Rocket Lab signed a memorandum of understanding with Nikon SLM Solutions for an ultra-large metal AM platform, intended to expand its additive capabilities beyond its existing fleet and provide greater design freedom, throughput, and build volume. The agreement reflected both the scale of Rocket Lab’s AM commitments and the increasing role of large-format laser powder bed fusion in aerospace manufacturing pipelines.

Additional milestones on the path to Neutron’s first launch include the completion of carbon composite flight structures for the fairing panels, Stage 1 and Stage 2 tanks, and the reusable Stage 1 structure. Infrastructure development is also continuing at Neutron’s dedicated launch site at Wallops Island, Virginia, with completed foundation concrete works for the launch mount and propellant and gas storage facilities, and installation of the site’s 278-foot water tower.