'There's tremendous demand': Rocket Lab raises price of Neutron launch from $55 million to $70 million
Rocket Lab has raised the launch cost of its next-gen Neutron rocket by more than 25%, an increase that reflects high demand amid a looming liftoff bottleneck.
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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).
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