What Makes the Neutron Rocket so Innovative?

Rocket Lab has begun designing a revolutionary new rocket. What makes this rocket so special?

Releasing the second stage by opening up the fairing attached to he first stage of the Neutron Rocket.

If you start comparing the details of the Neutron rocket with other well-known rockets such as Falcon 9, Starship, Soyuz, Ariane 5 and New Glenn (Blue Origin), it quickly becomes apparent that this is a very different kind of rocket.

It differs in design choices across the board:

• Engines — Archimedes engines planned for Neutron are simple low-performance engines, unlike Raptor and BE-4 used by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
• Materials — Almost all other rockets are metal-based, typically built using aluminum. Starship uses stainless steel. Neutron, however, is made with Carbon fiber composite.
• Shape — Most rockets are long thin tubes. Neutron is more like a traffic cone.
• Staging — Most companies stack rocket stages on top of each other. The second stage of Neutron is hung inside the first stage.
• Fairing — Usually, these are ejected, but Neutron will have opening and closing fairings.
• Launchpad — Instead of a complex launchpad with towers, Neutron will launch from a plain flat pad.