u/Equivalent-Wait3533

There's an engineering saying: "Don't reinvent the wheel." In fact, Rocket Lab has been very smart in certain decisions, such as acquiring companies that have allowed them to expand their services to the market. We've seen how their hardware and software revenues have grown.

Satellites:

The company has future plans to launch its own constellation. Based on the satellite renderings, they aren't reinventing the wheel; they're relying on designs already proven by SpaceX with its Starlink constellation: flat satellites designed to stack and maximize Neutron's payload capacity.

Neutron:

Herein lies Peter's dilemma and his biggest mistake. Neutron is projected to be the company's flagship rocket for competing in medium-lift launches.

Here I'll mention Terran R. What's so special about this rocket? They aren't reinventing the wheel. Their CEO went straight to the source, developing a rocket with proven designs to accelerate launches and reduce costs. He opened his checkbook and hired as many SpaceX employees as he could. The expertise of those engineers allowed him to build the Terran R.

Then there's the Neutron, a rocket built with carbon fiber on a massive scale. This material is widely used in specialized applications; in fact, the Falcon 9 uses carbon fiber in certain parts of the rocket.

SpaceX initially tried to base the entire Starship design on carbon fiber, but after internal testing, they changed their strategy to use stainless steel.

Why do I mention this? For Rocket Lab, the Neutron design started from scratch. Peter decided to disregard everything that had already been proven and take carbon fiber to the next level, discarding the engineers' experience and starting from zero to scale the design and turn it into the Neutron.

To date, Rocket Lab is the only company betting on large-scale carbon fiber in its rockets. This decision is the reason why we haven't yet seen the rocket fully assembled and being moved to the cryogenic test facility for its launch later this year.

I want to make it clear that the rocket will see the light of day in the future and will be successful.

Some questions arise:

Can the design be scaled up to compete with the Falcon Heavy, the Vulcan Centaur, or the New Glenn 6x2?

Will Rocket Lab acknowledge its mistake? Will this be reflected in projects following the Neutron?

Will the Neutron's "hippopotamus" fairing design allow the rocket to be suitable for transporting humans to space in a capsule?