Carbon-Fiber Giants: Rocket Lab’s Rocket-Building Machine vs. NASA’s ISAAC 

When you think about building rockets, you might picture fiery engines, astronauts in suits, and giant launch towers. But before any of that happens, someone has to build the rocket. That’s where high-tech machines like Rocket Lab’s carbon composite manufacturing system and NASA’s ISAAC robot at Langley Research Center (LaRC) come in.

These cutting-edge systems are changing the way we build rockets—making them faster, lighter, and stronger.

Rocket Lab’s Giant Carbon Composite Machine

Rocket Lab is a private space company known for its small rocket called Electron, which has already delivered dozens of satellites into space. But now, Rocket Lab is going big with a much larger rocket named Neutron. To build it, they created one of the largest advanced carbon composite manufacturing machines in the world.

Why carbon composites? These materials are super lightweight but incredibly strong—perfect for rockets that need to survive the stress of launch but stay as light as possible.

Rocket Lab’s machine works like a robotic arm on steroids. It lays down strips of carbon fiber material (like sticky tape) in specific patterns, which are then hardened into solid shapes using heat and pressure. This process is called automated fiber placement, or AFP. The machine can build large rocket parts, like fuel tanks and fairings, all in one continuous process, which helps reduce weight and increase strength by avoiding bolts and seams.

NASA’s ISAAC at Langley

Meanwhile, at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia, a powerful robotic system named ISAAC (short for Integrated Structural Assembly of Advanced Composites) is at work.

ISAAC is a highly flexible robotic system designed to help NASA research new ways of building aircraft and spacecraft. Like Rocket Lab’s machine, ISAAC also uses AFP to lay down carbon fiber, but what makes it unique is its versatility. ISAAC isn’t locked into building just one kind of rocket or plane. It’s more of a research platform—a high-tech lab assistant that helps engineers test new designs, new materials, and new building techniques.

ISAAC has multiple robotic arms that can work together on complex shapes. It’s helping NASA explore how to make future space vehicles, like crewed Mars landers or supersonic jets, lighter and more efficient.