We could have put something on the test stand earlier... propulsion is always the long pole in the tent.
The surprise with the Archimedes engine was not the engineering involved but the time it took to 'stand up all the elements to support production.' A milling machine that used to take three months to arrive ended up taking 18. Just getting enough concrete to construct the launch pad presented a challenge.
The Neutron is Rocket Lab's reusable heavy-lift rocket... capable of launching 13,000 kg to Low Earth Orbit or 1,500 kg to Mars or Venus, dwarfing Electron.
The challenge there is we can take all the liquid oxygen that is produced in New Zealand and half-fill the tank once. There's just not the industrial base to support such a machine.
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