The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital is giving a $150 million conditional loan to Rocket Lab meant to increase the launch rate for its new reusable Neutron rocket, which is slated for its first flight next year.
The deal is the third $150 million loan the office has handed out to space-focused firms in the past three weeks, as defense officials look to bolster the space industrial base. One went to Stoke Space, an emerging launch company, to build a second launch pad at at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. The other went to Leo Labs, a space intelligence company, to build up its manufacturing capacity and add dozens of radars to its network.
All of the loans are contingent on the companies clearing various financial, legal, and technical requirements.
Rocket Lab has established itself as the most prolific launch provider in the U.S. behind industry behemoth SpaceX. Its small-lift Electron rocket has launched 18 times in 2026, trailing only SpaceX’s Falcon family of rockets and China’s Long March family.
Neutron is meant to expand Rocket Lab into the medium-lift launch space. Neutron will be able to reach as far as geosynchronous orbit, have a payload capacity 25 times that of Electron, and have a reusable booster. The firm had been targeting late 2026 for its first launch, but it announced Oct. 14 it was delaying that first flight until 2027 due to a manufacturing issue.
The Pentagon’s loan isn’t meant to make that first launch come faster, but it is intended to quicken launch cadence once the first mission occurs.
“The proposed loan would support faster vehicle delivery and processing and allow Rocket Lab to expand its fleet of maritime vessels with additional equipment for Neutron recovery and transport,” a Pentagon release states. “It would also enable manufacturing upgrades to increase the production of composite structures and engines, and support infrastructure that would reduce turnaround time between launches once the reusable rocket makes its operational debut.”
Rocket Lab, for its part, says there is intense demand for Neutron. In a Nov. 9 release, the firm said it has already booked the rocket’s first 16 missions. That includes a mission for the Space Force’s Airborne Moving Target Indicator program. The next available launches are in the 2030s.
The Space Force has also selected Rocket Lab to compete for missions under its National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1 contract, which the service uses to fly smaller payloads with less stringent requirements, once Neutron logs its first successful launch.
The Pentagon’s loans to Rocket Lab and Stoke Space come amid broader concern in the space industry about a looming launch bottleneck. SpaceX has said it intended to retire its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket and focus on its new Starship super heavy rocket, with most of those launches going toward internal Starlink missions.
Asked during an Oct. 21 media briefing about the Space Force’s concerns about SpaceX’s new business model, Brig. Gen. Eric Zarynisky, portfolio acquisition executive for space access, told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the service has regular conversations with current and potential NSSL providers about their business plans.
“I’m seeing a lot of growth in those new providers, and being able to use those to support the customers that we see coming on in the national security space launch side,” he said. “We’re talking to all of the providers . . . about their future plans and then talking to them about where we see our manifest going. It is an ongoing conversation.”