By 
August 29th, 2025
Image credit: Rocket Lab
Rocket Lab has cut the ribbon on its high-tech Launch Complex 3, built to support its Neutron reusable rocket.
The complex is located within the Virginia Spaceport Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Pad 0D on Wallops Island, Virginia.
Image credit: Rocket Lab
Neutron is Rocket Lab’s reusable vehicle designed to loft 13,000 kilograms (33,000 pounds) to space for commercial constellations, national security and interplanetary missions, and eventually human spaceflight.
A Rocket Lab Launch Complex 3 official opening was held on August 28.
Image Credit: Rocket Lab
Novel design
Neutron utilizes a novel design that brings the stage 1 and payload fairings back to Earth as a single, integrated stage. Doing so maximizes cadence in a 13-ton to orbit reusable performance capability, explains Rocket Lab.
Neutron is powered by nine Archimedes engines on stage 1 and one vacuum-optimized Archimedes engine on stage 2.
“Our Neutron rocket, with its ability for responsive space access as a high cadence reusable launch vehicle, expands Virginia’s aerospace capabilities to enable the United States to quickly and reliably reach the International Space Station and low Earth orbit, as well as explore beyond Earth and on to the Moon and Mars,” said Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck prior to the ribbon cutting.
Image credit: Rocket Lab/Inside Outer Space screengrab
Complex complex
Shaun D’Mello, Rocket Lab’s vice president for Neutron, added that Launch Complex 3 was built and is now operational in less than two years of construction.
“Launch Complex 3 is an incredibly complex engineering feat that serves as a monument to exquisite design, streamlined operations, and the competitive advantage of Rocket Lab’s speed and efficiency.”
Construction on Launch Complex 3 began in late 2023, officially opened and declared operational in August 2025.
More than 60 contractors were involved in the site’s development to supply services, hardware, and materials – many of them Virginia-based local workers and companies, stated Rocket Lab.
Image credit: Rocket Lab
Propellant farms
The site’s roughly 30 feet 9 meters tall launch mount containing 700-plus tons of steel, operated by hydraulic mechanisms that support, hold, and will subsequently release Neutron for test and launch operations.
Launch equipment vaults at the complex house electrical and control equipment needed to operate the site’s ground systems and launch vehicle.
Additionally, the complex has 180,000 gallon liquid oxygen and Liquefied natural gas propellant farms that will store and load the Neutron booster with fuel and oxidizer for test and launch operations, alongside 45,000 gallons of stored liquid nitrogen in three vertical tanks.
Shower of praise at ribbon cutting.
Image credit: Rocket Lab
Wet and wild
The sprawling complex supports a 200,000–plus gallon capacity water supply tower standing at 200-plus feet tall.
That water supply to be used at Neutron’s roaring liftoff was showcased during the facility’s August 28 ribbon cutting.
Providing a wet and wild moment during the event, alongside Rocket Lab’s Beck and D’Mello, was Governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, Congresswoman Jen Kiggans, Virginia Secretary of Transportation W. Sheppard Miller III, and Roosevelt Mercer, Jr., Maj Gen, USAF (Ret.), CEO & Executive Director of the Virginia Spaceport Authority.
Go to this Rocket Lab Launch Complex 3 official opening at:
Posted in Space News
