The latest expansion of the empire of rocket building and launching facilities was announced by Rocket Lab. The company's existing pads in New Zealand and the U.S. will continue to be used, but a new facility will be built in Virginia to house the larger Neutron launch vehicle.
The new Neutron Production Complex will be located inside NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on a 28-acre plot. It's a lot of space, but rockets are big, and Rocket Lab plans to make a lot of them.
The vehicle assembly will take place there, as well as the specialized carbon composites that make it up. Rolls of the stuff will be available fresh from the equivalent of a warm oven.
The entire launch vehicle will be manufactured in that facility, according to Peter Beck. We didn't want to define the diameter of the largest bridge.
Beck spoke about the advantages of this large diameter back in December.
Rocket Lab reimagines rocket design with its Neutron launch vehicle
After being refurbished in the same facility where they were born, the Neutrons will return to Wallops, as a launch vehicle designed from the ground up for reusability. It is an all-in-one complex that should offer hundreds of jobs for the area and further cement Wallops as a leader in the space industry.
The state has earmarked some $45 million in funds to expand and improve the Wallops NASA facility, though the money is still working its way through the capitol, according to Ted Mercer, head of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority.
If that is done and blessed by the legislature, $30 million will go into construction for the facility, and the rest will be used for the new launch pad.
Beck said that they are hoping to break ground very soon and that they should be able to test it.
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