Rocket Lab CEO Sir Peter Beck in the control room. Photo / Dean Purcell
The newly-knighted Rocket Lab founder and CEO isn’t making anyone call him Sir Peter Beck.
“It’s just Pete,” he told The Front Page - ahead of his company’s 50th launch.
Not only is it a major milestone for Rocket Lab - but it will be the fastest any other company in history has reached 50 launches.
The “No Time Toulouse” mission is scheduled to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia during a 14-day launch window that opens today. It is the first of five dedicated launches to deploy a 25-satellite constellation for French Internet-of-Things company, Kinéis.
“I think it’s quite significant. Everybody sees the rocket, but I guess what is less obvious is all of the infrastructure and everything behind it. It’s well understood that your first rocket is really, really hard. Your 20th rocket is 20 times harder than your first rocket because you have to be in full production at that point,” Beck said.
“So, reaching a milestone of 50 flights, not many rockets have launched as many as 50 times let alone to do it the fastest. I think it’s a real testament to the team and the company.”
According to Deloitte, in 2018 and 2019 New Zealand’s space industry contributed $1.7 billion to the economy. Space Minister Judith Collins told The Front Page our people, innovators, and creators in the sector are very well-respected.
And Beck agreed, saying there are some great start-ups in New Zealand and real potential for the sector here.
“New Zealanders are incredibly smart people, very innovative, and they have the ability to move across multiple functions and disciplines, which is really important in the space industry.”
In recent years, some of the world’s richest men have been investing in space - like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Richard Branson.
“We often joke our two biggest competitors, are actually the two wealthiest people on this planet,” Beck said.
“For us, we, we don’t have infinite capital, so we have to be very smart and we model ourselves after a famous Ernest Rutherford saying, and, and that was, he said, we have no money, so we, therefore we have to think.”
But, Beck said there’s no Holden v Ford rivalry between the world’s top players - who often are the first to call to congratulate a successful launch.
“We all know each other and we all respect each other, for what each other has achieved.
“We compete for contracts and for customers and all of that, but it’s a unique industry at the end of the day. When someone else does something truly amazing all of the competitors are the first to congratulate them.”
So, what’s next on the radar for Beck and Rocket Lab?
“I’m very passionate about interplanetary and interplanetary science.
“We have two satellites that are headed to Mars at the end of this year for Nasa to measure a whole lot of magnetic fields in space, information and data around the red planet.
“The findings of that are going to be not only just enormous to understand Mars but also how Mars ended up how it was, which we can then use to help Earth.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more about Rocket Lab’s US defence contracts and where Beck wants to see the company in ten years.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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