[[Home|🏠]] <span style="color: LightSlateGray">></span> [[Interviews]] <span style="color: LightSlateGray">></span> September 22 2022 **Insider**: [[Peter Beck]] **Source**: [CNBC](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3qVqI5YF0E) **Date**: September 22 2022 ![](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3qVqI5YF0E) 🔗 Backup Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3qVqI5YF0E ## 🎙️ Transcript >[!hint] Transcript may contain errors or inaccuracies. **Interviewer:** So great to have you here, thank you for having me. So you had your investor day yesterday, you offered quite a number of updates on everything that is afoot at Rocket Lab, but I do actually want to start with the Space Systems piece of the puzzle. Because even though Rocket Lab is not directly linked to the partnership between Apple and Globalstar for space-based connectivity, you are a key supplier. So how does that, I guess, move the needle in terms of the conversation around space-based internet service? **Peter Beck:** I think most people know us as the rocket company, and we go to pains to try and distinguish ourselves not just from being a rocket company. But the Space Systems side of the business is actually the larger side of the business, and it's exciting to be able to work on projects like the Globalstar project where we're providing key systems to large systems like that. **Interviewer:** Is Space Systems growing more quickly? Is it on a more profitable path than the rocket side? **Peter Beck:** They're both growing about the same amount. Certainly Space Systems is a more profitable business, but the thing to remember is that launch is the key enabler. Launch is the keys to space, and it's very rare to have a company that has the keys to space but also can build all the infrastructure that goes into space. So we're trying to build really an end-to-end space company here. ### Launch Capabilities and Neutron Development **Interviewer:** So let's talk about the launch piece of the puzzle. You offered investors yesterday an update on your Neutron rocket. Electron has just been on a tear—I think you've got 30 launches to date so far, 150 satellites deployed to orbit. You have another launch coming up next weekend, I believe, as well. When Deutsche Bank comes out with a number like that by 2030, does that sound right to you? **Peter Beck:** Yeah, it does. If you look at what's physically happening within the industry, you've got a large number of very large constellations coming to market. You've got Amazon Kuiper, you've got Telesat. So there is going to be a launch crunch in that sort of 2026 to 2028 time frame, and that's why we're bringing our larger launch vehicle, Neutron, to market to really meet that demand. **Interviewer:** Reusability—where are we at in terms of that process exactly? **Peter Beck:** Well, with Electron, we're pretty much there. The last reusable flight we ran, we caught it in the sky mid-air with a helicopter, and we're getting ready to bring that home. Of course, Neutron is a reusable rocket from day one, so we're strong believers and one of only a couple of companies in the world that have actually pulled it off. ### Aerospace Engineering Talent **Interviewer:** I've got to imagine it's a good time to be an aerospace engineer? **Peter Beck:** It's a great time. **Interviewer:** Can you talk about labor? Was there a waiting pool of engineers ready to really delve into space? Are you stealing from other areas of mechanical, electrical engineering and so on? **Peter Beck:** Look, certainly there's no great resource just waiting for it. We create a lot of them, in fact. So we run scholarships, apprenticeship courses, PhD sponsorships. There is a real aerospace talent shortage, but instead of burying your head in the sand, we created the Rocket Ambassador Program where we go right back to primary schools and try and get kids interested in STEM, because it's going to be a massive problem now and into the future unless we do something.