Pictured at the official opening of the Rocket Lab Engine Development Center are, left to right: Long Beach Councilwoman Megan Kerr, Rocket Lab CFO Adam Spice, Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson, and California State Senator Lena Gonzalez. (Photo: Business Wire)
The new advanced manufacturing and development center in Long Beach enables high-rate production of the Rutherford and Archimedes rocket engines, the company said.
LONG BEACH, Calif.—Rocket Lab USA, Inc., reported it officially opened its new Engine Development Center, a 144,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing complex in Long Beach that will support high-rate production of Rocket Lab’s 3D printed Rutherford engine. The new facility will also support development and production for the new Archimedes engine, which will power the company’s new medium-lift rocket, Neutron, the company said in a release.
The facility was formerly Virgin Orbit’s headquarters and factory for the Launcher One vehicle. Rocket Lab took over the lease for the facility and acquired the factory’s production assets, machinery, and equipment in May 2023 for $16.1 million, generating significant savings for the Neutron’s production program, according to the release.
“We are proud and excited to continue growing our Long Beach team and footprint by increasing production of our advanced rocket engines right here in space beach,” said Rocket Lab Founder and CEO Peter Beck, in a statement. “This Engine Development Center builds on the legacy of the Rutherford engine and signals a new era at Rocket Lab with the development of Archimedes, our new large LOx/methane engine, which will power the reusable Neutron rocket.
“By co-locating our Engine Development Center near our Long Beach headquarters and production complex, we’ve maximized collaboration between our engineering and manufacturing to ensure streamlined efficiency as we continue ramping up Electron launch cadence and get closer to Neutron’s debut launch,” Beck added.
After being manufactured at the Engine Development Center, the completed Archimedes engines will undergo testing at NASA’s historic Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where Rocket Lab is establishing a dedicated test facility at the A-3 Test Stand. From there, the Archimedes engines will be integrated onto the Neutron launch vehicle in preparation for lift-off from Rocket Lab’s Launch Complex 3 at Virginia Spaceport Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport within NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
Rutherford engines complete testing in New Zealand before integration onto Electron and launch from Rocket Lab’s two Electron launch sites: Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand and Launch Complex 2 in Virginia.
The Engine Development Center was officially opened by Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson.
“I am proud to welcome and celebrate Rocket Lab’s new state-of-the-art Engine Development Center here to Long Beach,” said Mayor Richardson in the release. “By choosing Long Beach for this new expansion, it further cements our role as a nationally significant hub of space technology and manufacturing.”
Rocket Lab is a manufacturer of satellites and spacecraft components. The company also said it provides “on-orbit management solutions that make it faster, easier, and more affordable to access space.” Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the Electron small orbital launch vehicle, the Photon satellite platform, and is developing the large Neutron launch vehicle for constellation deployment, the release said.