WASHINGTON -- Rocket Lab says it has signed the first customer for its Neutron launch vehicle as the company pushes towards a mid-2025 first launch of the vehicle.

The company announced Nov. 12 that it signed a contract with an undisclosed "commercial satellite constellation operator" for two launches of Neutron, one in mid-2026 and the other in 2027, a deal that could lead to additional launches for the same customer.

"We see this agreement as an important opportunity that signifies the beginning of a productive collaboration that could see Neutron deploy this particular customer's entire constellation," Peter Beck, chief executive of Rocket Lab, said in an earnings call Nov. 12 to discuss the company's third quarter financial results.

The company has taken a cautious approach to marketing Neutron. "Until a vehicle is proven and flying, any launch contract that you can sign is basically worthless," Beck said in an earnings call a year ago. "I'd much rather arrive to the market with something that works, that commands a premium, than fill my manifest up with a whole bunch of low-value launches now."

While Neutron is not flying yet, Beck said in this latest earnings call that "conversations with customers and demands for launch slots have started to mature." He noted that this contract is "in family" with previous statements by the company that targeted a launch price of $50 million to $55 million for Neutron.

"We're not going to be selling heavily discounted Neutron launches just because it's a new vehicle," added Adam Spice, Rocket Lab's chief financial officer.

The company plans gradually scale up launches of Neutron, with a single test launch in 2025 followed by three in 2026, five in 2027 and "then continue to seven and beyond," Beck said. "That's following pretty much the same scaling rate as we saw that we could do with Electron and, quite frankly I mean, if you look back through history, it's pretty difficult to see any examples of a scaling rate faster than that."

Beck said Rocket Lab is "deep into the qualification testing" of flight hardware, including vehicle structures and the Archimedes engine, which was hotfired for the first time in August at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. "Our engine test cadence in Mississippi has doubled over the quarter, and we've bought multiple engines to the test stand," he said.

Neutron is a key part of the company's ambitions to deploy its own constellation, something that Beck has hinted at in some previous earnings calls. His presentation called that constellation the third pillar for Rocket Lab, after launch services and spacecraft production, both of which support the constellation.

"We're not ready to reveal details on what this constellation or application may be," he said, "but I think it's important to understand the strong foundation we've built up across launch and space systems to enable it in due course."

That includes Neutron, with Beck citing SpaceX's use of Falcon 9 to deploy its Starlink constellation. "Everything is irrelevant without a reusable high cadence launch. So, Neutron is really the key to unlocking that."

Rocket Lab also announced Nov. 12 its next Electron launch, scheduled for no earlier than Nov. 23 (New Zealand time). The launch will carry a third set of five satellites for Kinéis, a French company deploying a constellation for ship-tracking services after launches in June and September, part of a five-launch contract between the companies.

Rocket Lab has performed 12 Electron launches so far this year, most recently for an undisclosed commercial customer Nov. 5. Rocket Lab once projected performing as many as 22 Electron launches this year but has since scaled back its estimates to 15 to 18 launches, a range that will still require a surge in activity in the final weeks of the year.

Beck said the company was still sticking with that range of 15 to 18 launches this year. "I'm always a little bit gun shy on this these days," he said. "I think we've got certainly a very busy fourth quarter. And at this stage, the customers are looking good, so I think we'll be within that range."