COLORADO SPRINGS — Extremely busy looking to the future. This is a short and sweet review from Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab. In the pantheon of private space groups, Rocket Lab is a huge success, and Beck wants to keep it that way.
Founded in 2006 Rocket LabThe quest to pioneer affordable access to space has been shouldered by the advancement of technology. ElectronA launch vehicle designed to provide private journeys of small satellites into orbit. The rocket’s first successful orbital excursion took place in January 2018 at the company’s New Zealand launch site, located on the North Island’s Māhia Peninsula.
Fast forward to today, Electron has flown 46 times and launched more than 180 satellites for private and public sector organizations, including U.S. national security payloads.
Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Rocket Lab has three launch pads, two in New Zealand and the third on Wallops Island in Virginia. Additionally, the company’s Photon spacecraft platform has been selected to support NASA’s missions to the moon. Anthemand Rocket Lab plans to specifically ship a Photon Life search mission to Venus.
Currently at the top of the company’s to-do list is the development of a larger, partially reusable Neutron rocket for the deployment of large spacecraft and satellite constellations.
As this brief summary shows, Rocket Lab has a lot on its plate.
“We joke that the year of Rocket Lab is like the year of the dog,” Beck said. “One Rocket Lab year feels like five.”
In an exclusive interview, Space.com caught up with the enterprising entrepreneur during the Space Foundation’s 39th Space Symposium held here earlier this month. The conversation below has been edited for length.
Relating to: Facts and information about Rocket Lab
Space.com: Space startups have a poor track record; Many companies have come and gone. What do you pay attention to regarding your success and growth?
Peter Beck: Now I feel like an old person in society. First of all, I think we are very pragmatic. Application is the main focus. One of the things I’ve observed coming into the space industry is that many businesses develop something great and then try to figure out how to sell it. We identify problems, then we go and fix the problems. By creating value, you build something that people want.
Space.com: What was the first problem you solved?
Beck: Originally it was Elektron. There is tremendous growth in the small satellite industry and the need for a small, dedicated launcher. So we started from there. The plan was always much bigger.
Space.com: How do you go about being ‘more grandiose’?
Beck: Half of my brain is a successful entrepreneur. The other half of my brain is an engineer realist. And they’re constantly wrestling with each other. We kind of fall in the middle… We are ambitious and pursue big things. But we are also very careful and pragmatic about how we do and implement them. We never bet the company on anything. We are progressing step by step and continuing to grow.
Space.com: Could you grow too fast, making it difficult to keep an eye on everything?
Beck: It doesn’t look like it’s going to get any quieter, that’s for sure. Rocket Lab has a unique and distinct culture. We bought companies. So when you acquire a company, that’s another cultural challenge. But it’s pretty simple. Just do what you say you will do and follow through. There are about 1,800 of us, which is more than I ever thought we could have. I think if you stick to some basics and understand what makes you special and then stick with those, that’s important.
Space.com: What milestones are ahead of us in, say, a year?
Beck: Two-thirds of our revenue comes from our space systems business. Many people see us as a rocket company. It didn’t help when we called ourselves Rocket Lab. We are an end-to-end space company providing spacecraft design and manufacturing services. satellite components, flight software and other things. We are now shoulder to shoulder with other primes.
The biggest sucking sound in the room is the sound of the Neutron launch vehicle. We just need to get it to the pad. There are many people who want this booster on pad. We have a big job ahead of us; not just to put it on the pad, but to get Neutron into production and present it as a reliable alternative at launch.
Space.com: On the space exploration side of Rocket Lab, what about your special Venus mission?
Beck: This is an example of a situation where the entrepreneur gets a little carried away, but the engineer reins him in. As a private project, this is something the team does at night and on weekends. Everyone who participates brings their own resources. I confess, I love interplanetaryness, and this actually comes from the urge to answer the question: Are we the only life in the universe or no? Venus It has the potential to answer this question, so it’s worth doing.
But we have a lot of customers, satellites to build, rockets to deliver. So the Venus mission is being pushed aside because we have a business to run. But if the entrepreneurial side took over, we would launch this tomorrow. The truth is that we need to deliver to our customers first.
There’s a good Venus window next year, so maybe. I won’t make any commitments on this. It depends on where we are. There’s a lot going on right now and we have big contracts to fill.
Relating to: Life on Venus? Why isn’t it a ridiculous thought?
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Space.com: Acts as mission control for many spacecraft, including Rocket Lab, private MethaneSat and Varda Space Industries production effort in space this uses your Photon spacecraft. Why is this role important to the company?
Beck: At the end of the day, we’re trying to build an end-to-end space company, and that includes mission operations. We can design, build and operate your spacecraft. The big successful space companies of the future will like the model we built.
Space.com: Rocket Lab also had launch failures. How painful is the experience and how good are you at finding the root cause?
Beck: Unfortunately, we are very strong in this regard. We invite all our customers to the fault investigation board and we are proud of it. Electron is a highly equipped vehicle and we monitor many things very closely on every flight. We have big data investigations using artificial intelligence on every flight [artificial intelligence] to consume data and look for any anomalies or anything outside the family. This is all part of making sure you don’t fail. But it happens.
last failure It was like there were 10 different things that all needed to be sorted and after thousands of hours of testing we had to painstakingly step back. The chain of events that must occur for this latest anomaly is extraordinary. That’s the hard thing, especially about launching. It takes no prisoners. There is no room for any assumptions.
Space.com: Your success outweighs your setbacks. What’s going on in the factory at Rocket Lab from a manufacturing standpoint?
Beck: Production is production. I don’t think anything fundamentally has changed. There’s definitely a lot of technology, 3D printing. We were the first to put a 3D printed engine into orbit. Some companies have prepared an entire thesis about 3D printing the rocket. This doesn’t make any sense to me. There are so many rumors.
Metallic colors have not changed since the 1950s. Aluminum is the same strength as stainless steel. What has changed is the rise of carbon fiber. We only apply this to the entire launch vehicle. This gives us a real advantage in terms of lightweight structures.
Space.com: How do you see Rocket Lab in five or 10 years?
Beck: That’s a long time to look forward. But I think large, successful space companies will model what we’re building. So, you have your own launch. You have the opportunity to build satellites at any scale you want. You can deploy infrastructure at scale. Everything will go there.
proof of this starlink Right now. SpaceX It doesn’t go away. If you want to compete with them, you have to build the satellite yourself and make your own journey into space.