Rutherford
Rocket Lab Rutherford is an electric-pump-fed LOX/kerosene liquid rocket engine with 5,600 lbf (24 kN) sea-level thrust, brushless-DC motor-driven propellant pumps, and additive-manufactured primary components. Rocket Lab’s Electron uses nine sea-level Rutherford engines on its first stage; the separate vacuum-optimized second-stage nozzle is preserved as a stage configuration boundary in the canonical graph.
Identity
- Domains
- spaceflight
- Identity Level
- model
- Kind
- liquid-rocket-engine
- Name
- Rutherford
- Status
- active
Details
- Description
- Rocket Lab Rutherford is an electric-pump-fed LOX/kerosene liquid rocket engine with 5,600 lbf (24 kN) sea-level thrust, brushless-DC motor-driven propellant pumps, and additive-manufactured primary components. Rocket Lab’s Electron uses nine sea-level Rutherford engines on its first stage; the separate vacuum-optimized second-stage nozzle is preserved as a stage configuration boundary in the canonical graph.
- Developers
- Family
- Manufacturers
- Propellants
- keroseneliquid oxygen
- Rocket Specs
- Cycle
- electric-pump-fed
- Sea Level Specific Impulse S
- 311
- Sea Level Thrust Kn
- 24
Links
- Official Url
- https://rocketlabcorp.com/launch/electron/
Assets & Meta
- Creation Time
- July 29, 2026 at 08:54:44 UTC
- Updated Time
- August 15, 2026 at 01:45:20 UTC
Other
- Sources
- Accessed Date
- 2026-08-14
- Note
- Rocket Lab’s current Electron Payload User Guide identifies Rutherford as a 5,600 lbf (24 kN) electric-pumped LOX/kerosene engine, documents nine first-stage engines and one vacuum-optimized second-stage engine, and describes its brushless-DC electric pumps and additive manufacturing.
- Publisher
- Rocket Lab
- Title
- Electron Payload User Guide v7.0
- Accessed Date
- 2026-08-14
- Note
- Rocket Lab identifies Rutherford as the electric-pump-fed engine designed for Electron and documents its in-house additive-manufacturing boundary.
- Publisher
- Rocket Lab
- Title
- Electron Payload User Guide
- Accessed Date
- 2026-08-14
- Note
- Rocket Lab’s official vehicle reference establishes Electron as the Rutherford-powered launch vehicle.
- Publisher
- Rocket Lab
- Title
- Electron
- Accessed Date
- 2026-08-14
- Note
- Rocket Lab’s official HASTE reference documents Rutherford-powered HASTE configurations.
- Publisher
- Rocket Lab
- Title
- HASTE