[[Home|🏠]] <span style="color: LightSlateGray">></span> [[Interviews]] <span style="color: LightSlateGray">></span> December 4 2024 **Insider**: [[Peter Beck]] **Source**: [Bloomberg The Asia Trade](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2024-12-05/rocket-lab-on-business-outlook-video) **Date**: December 4 2024 <div class="responsive-video"> <iframe src="https://www.bloomberg.com/media-manifest/embed/iframe?id=7c237382-6771-4c34-8e0a-9953c97def29" allowscriptaccess="always" frameborder="0"></iframe> </div> 🔗 Backup Link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2024-12-05/rocket-lab-on-business-outlook-video ## 🎙️ Transcript >[!hint] Transcript may contain errors or inaccuracies. **Interviewer (00:00):** Perhaps first I will start off on this news. And in a lot of ways it's unsurprising. It's sort of someone else, another individual who's close to Elon Musk is close to SpaceX. And we know that Elon has a critical role in this new administration for the president-elect. Do you think this impacts the sort of contours of space policy and investment and the landscape of competition for companies that are not SpaceX? **Peter Beck (00:26):** No, I don't think so. I mean, look, the net positive of the new administration is, you know, there's a strong focus on space and a strong focus on defense and a strong focus on efficiency. And I think that's all good. And look, you know, having an astronaut run a space agency is a great thing. I mean, as an astronaut, you have to have a very deep understanding of the industry, the vehicles, and a deep amount of respect and training. So certainly, you know, having a passionate person heading up the agency, I think is a positive thing. ### Rocket Lab's Approach to Success **Interviewer (00:58):** It's really funny. I read through some of the media about Rocket Lab and yourself, and the company's being called scrappy, you know, innovative, but not coming from traditional space routes. How do you kind of characterize the success that you've had? You've just talked about it. It makes sense to have an astronaut lead NASA, for example. Do you think the way that you've led this company from the beginning, you know, how does that play a role in the success in the way that you kind of drive future developments in tech going forward? **Peter Beck (01:28):** Yeah, no, I think that's true. I mean, you know, we have we've never had the backings of billionaires. So we've always - we have a saying here at Rocket Lab. In fact, it was stolen from Ernest Rutherford, and that is "we have no money, so we have to think." So, we've had to come in a very non-traditional way. And within the space industry, you know, sometimes having too much capital is not a good thing. And we had to develop businesses - really sustainable businesses and technologies from a very, very early time in its history. ### Neutron Rocket Development **Interviewer (02:05):** Everyone wants to know about Neutron, certainly shareholders, right. Can you give us some updates when it comes to key dates and milestones and potentially, you know, who the customers will be? **Peter Beck (02:14):** Yeah, absolutely. So it's a medium class launch vehicle. It's designed to compete with the Falcon 9's very successful vehicle and provide some alternatives there for launch. And we're trying to get that on the pad by middle of next year and get our first test flight away. And then the following years, we sort of run the traditional cadence of three and then five launches and seven and so on and so forth. So at the moment it's on track and, you know, we think it is the first time, at least in a medium class launch vehicle, where someone's been able to come out with a complete blank sheet approach and design a vehicle that's just as happy to go up as it is to go down. **Interviewer (02:59):** You've taken a pretty cautious approach when it comes to marketing Neutron, right. Is that just because you want to be able to see a successful launch first, or how much interest is there going on in the background from future customers? **Peter Beck (03:13):** Yeah, look, I mean, of all the things I worry about at night - and there's a lot of them - it's not demand for Neutron. And look, this is just kind of our style really. You know, we're not one to bring technology to market until it works and people can rely on us. And when you're talking about launch, people build their whole businesses around your launch cadence. So, coming with an unrealistic launch cadence or aspirational doesn't do anybody any good. And so for us, we're well known and respected for the service we provide. So, when someone buys a Rocket Lab rocket, they know they're going to get there and it's going to be on time. ### Competition with SpaceX **Interviewer (03:53):** I know you get asked a lot about the competition with SpaceX and the ability to do that. And I do wonder, what do you see in terms of scale, the ability to scale up for Neutron in the coming years for that competition to meaningfully, you know, be a thing? **Peter Beck (04:08):** Yeah, I mean, look, as I mentioned, you know, there's huge demand and what we're what we're kind of seeing is the democratization of space, whether it be from government programs through to commercial programs. And you have a number of large players that aren't really traditional space players now building large constellations. So I think there is tremendous demand for that medium class, and we aim to be there to service that demand. So, I think it's a very, very exciting time. And no monopoly has stood the stand of history. So, there's always opportunities there to be disruptive. ### End-to-End Space Company Strategy **Interviewer (04:49):** Can you tell us more about the Constellation? What is sort of part of that, the sort of applicability to that at this point? **Peter Beck (04:59):** What we're trying to build here is an end-to-end space company. And I think a traditional space company - you know, we are just a rocket company or we're just a satellite company - is over. And the large space companies of the future are going to be end-to-end. And when I say end-to-end, I mean it's kind of a little bit blurry about what is a space company anymore. I mean, are you a services company or are you a rocket company? And we've historically gone about building capability and building things like satellites and a variety of things, and then also launch vehicles. And our view of the future is that space companies will be very blurred with space versus service companies. And I think you can see that playing out right now in communications and internet from space - the most successful company has the ability to deploy whatever satellite and rocket and on any timeframe they wish. And I think to be competitive, you're going to have to have those elements. ### On Rocket Lab's Share Price **Interviewer (05:57):** From the scrappy startup to the world's newest space billionaire. I have to end by asking you, how much do you care about or watch that share price? **Peter Beck (06:07):** Well, I care about it and watch it not for my own personal gain, but for everybody else. I mean, we have some very long-standing shareholders and it's just great to see them rewarded. But like anything, you know, we've got a long way to go yet. And it really feels like we're just getting started.