[[Home|🏠]] <span style="color: LightSlateGray">></span> [[Interviews]] <span style="color: LightSlateGray">></span> July 5 2021 **Insider**: [[Peter Beck]] **Source**: [Tony Lyall](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSALQbsscS8) **Date**: July 5 2021 ![](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSALQbsscS8) 🔗 Backup Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSALQbsscS8 ## 🎙️ Transcript >[!hint] Transcript may contain errors or inaccuracies. **Narrator:** Kiwi ingenuity is shooting for the moon—literally. The project was granted exclusive, never-before-granted access to Rocket Lab's top secret rocket testing site. It was such a journalistic moment; naturally, we sent a comedian. **Comedian:** This is why I'm here. In a moment, they're going to light this up over 3000 degrees. It's a rare opportunity. There are only two private companies in the world shooting for the heavens, one of them is here. Rocket Lab has aspirations to go to the moon, so we're here to meet the head honcho before it all takes off. That's a pun. **Narrator:** It's not a pun, it's literal. That's what's happening. ### Interview with Rocket Lab CEO **Comedian:** Didn't we clock it in like the 1960s? What's the point in going back? **CEO:** Well, I mean, you need to go to the moon to be able to go to other places more interesting like Mars. And we're serious about really colonizing our solar system. Going to the moon is just... it's a no joke kind of an exercise. **Comedian:** How fast are we talking? **CEO:** Very fast. I think it's about 11 kilometers per second. We start off at 28 times the speed of sound and then go from there. **Comedian:** One of the cool things I love is when I'm having a real bad day, I just go down and stroke the rocket. **Narrator:** Not inappropriately, it certainly sounds it. With more missions under his belt than most countries and hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, hey, whatever works. In fact, Rocket Lab is so rapidly expanding to meet demand now, they're struggling to hire enough people, with two-thirds being Kiwis. Hundreds more could be part of history. **Comedian:** You need comedians? **CEO:** It could be good at the lunch break for sure. **Comedian:** I'll take that as a maybe. ### Rocket Testing Site Visit **Narrator:** My dreams of doing stand up in space might have to wait, but I was here to see rockets. So who better to talk to than an actual rocket scientist? **Comedian:** What are we out here to watch? **Peter Beck:** We're doing a stage one development test for Rutherford, and yeah, we're gonna turn it up full bore and um, yeah, check some things out. This is our Rutherford engine. We use nine of them on stage one, and that gets us most of the way in terms of altitude. We test on the ground before we fly because you want to find problems on the ground first. We're pumping through kgs and kgs per second of liquid oxygen and rocket grade kerosene. **Comedian:** Is it weird for me to be nervous about this? **Peter Beck:** Yeah. ### The Rocket Test **Narrator:** All right, enough shop talk. It's time to get less and test these bad boys. **Peter Beck:** Less than 10 seconds out, or about 10 seconds. **Comedian:** Oh boy, I'm nervous. There it goes! **Peter Beck:** So we're in full swing now, yeah, full throttle. **Comedian:** What's that stuff coming out? **Peter Beck:** It's all steam. **Comedian:** It's certainly quite noisy. Is it safe, the stuff that's coming on us? **Peter Beck:** Just water. **Comedian:** It is so loud! **Narrator:** I think it's safe to say the uh, sausage is a bird. Classic. While space travel still feels like sci-fi, the team at Rocket Lab are turning dreams into reality. What used to be one small step for man is now a giant leap for Kiwi kind. ### Closing Comments **Host:** Awesome, such an awesome story. And if you're watching that thinking, "Geez, I wouldn't mind working for Rocket Lab," you should apply. A lot of people apparently are put off because they think, "Well, I haven't got any experience building rockets so I'll be no good." But actually, they're saying if you've got transferable skills then get in touch with them because they are desperate for the staff. **Jeremy:** Like an engineer or something, not like someone like me. **Host:** Have a look on their website. I mean, they look... they need sign writers. **Another Host:** They've got sort of related videos, yeah. **Host:** And producer Damian today said if you can write signs, you might be in with the job, but I think they have an age limit there, Jeremy.