Rocket Lab’s ‘Hungry Hippo’ passes final test ahead of 1st reusable Neutron rocket launch

Rocket Lab is getting ready to take a bigger bite out of the space launch market. The company recently completed final qualification tests on the fairing that will crown its newest launch vehicle, the partially reusable Neutron, which is expected to fly for the first time early next year.

The “Hungry Hippo”-style fairing opens and closes like a clamshell (or the jaws of the colorful game pieces in the “Hungry Hungry Hippos” children’s boardgame) and is a novel approach to launch vehicle reusability. While Rocket Lab’s workhorse (but expendable) Electron rocket has quickly gained momentum in the small launch market, Neutron is built to compete with SpaceX’s heftier Falcon 9 — the only orbital launch vehicle with a proven track record of reusability.

SpaceX, too, has implemented its own recovery and refurbishment plans for Falcon 9 fairings, but the two halves of the shell protecting the rocket’s payload on its way to orbit are still designed to split apart and fall back to Earth independently of each other, and of Falcon 9’s first stage. Neutron’s first stage, by contrast, will open its top like a giant mouth to spit out the vehicle’s entire second stage and payload, and will then close the two halves back together before descending back through Earth’s atmosphere to land and fly again.

With qualification tests now complete, Neutron’s fairing section has been shipped to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia, where it will be mated to the rocket ahead the vehicle’s debut launch.

“A rocket like Neutron has never been built before, and we’re doing it at a pace and price point that’s going to bring the innovation and competition needed in today’s industry,“ Rocket Lab Vice President for Neutron Shaun D’Mello said in a Dec. 8 statement.

The company hails Neutron as “the world’s largest carbon composite launch vehicle,“ and said the new rocket’s fairing underwent extensive tests before it was finally deemed ready for flight.

Before departing Rocket Lab’s California-based test facility, the fairing was exposed to 275,000 pounds of external force to simulate dynamic pressures during launch, rapid cycling of the open and close mechanisms to ensure faster-than-necessary operations, software integration and load forces exceeding 125% design requirements.

Once the fairing is incorporated with Neutron’s first stage, Rocket Lab will perform a series of prelaunch tests, including a static hotfire of the nine Archimedes engines that power the reusable booster. Neutron will stand 141 feet (43 meters) tall with a 23-foot (7 m) diameter, and is expected to deliver up to 28,700 pounds (13,000 kilograms) of payload to low Earth orbit.