Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck has taken a direct jab at SpaceX’s famously modest benchmark for its first Starship flight, calling it “rubbish” during his company’s Q2 2025 earnings call.
Beck, discussing the upcoming debut of Rocket Lab’s Neutron rocket, said his team’s bar for success will be far higher than just clearing the launch pad.
SpaceX’s first integrated Starship test flight in April 2023 made history as the first rocket with 33 engines to launch from Earth. Ahead of the mission, Elon Musk’s team openly stated the goal was simply to clear the pad – a target that seemed prudent when the mission ended four minutes later, after the upper stage failed to separate from the Super Heavy booster, triggering a flight termination.
While SpaceX’s Falcon 9 remains the benchmark for reusable orbital rockets, Neutron is Rocket Lab’s play for the medium-lift market. With 6,600 kN of thrust – less than Falcon 9’s 7,600 kN – Neutron is still designed for reusability, with early landings planned at sea before moving to propulsive returns. The first Neutron launch is expected in the second half of this year, with infrastructure already well underway to support a rapid production cadence.
Beck stressed that building one rocket is tough, but creating the infrastructure to churn out flights into the double digits is the real challenge – and that’s where most of the investment is going. He was blunt about his success criteria: for Neutron, it’s about reaching orbit and proving the rocket is ready to scale, not just lifting off the pad.
His remarks underline a cultural difference in testing philosophy: SpaceX embraces public trial-and-error as part of its rapid iteration strategy, while Rocket Lab seems set on a more traditional ‘orbit or bust’ approach. Whether this signals a brewing rivalry or simply a difference in style, the coming year will be a telling one for both companies’ visions of the future of rocketry.