[[Home|🏠]] <span style="color: LightSlateGray">></span> [[Interviews]] <span style="color: LightSlateGray">></span> September 22 2022 **Insider**: [[Peter Beck]] **Source**: [Yahoo Finance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-9uy8gXYdw) **Date**: September 22 2022 ![](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IueD0_f7O8k) 🔗 Backup Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IueD0_f7O8k ## 🎙️ Transcript >[!hint] Transcript may contain errors or inaccuracies. **Interviewer:** Well, small launch leader Rocket Lab is set to begin construction on its engine test facility for its reusable Neutron rocket. That will take place at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Local officials are hoping the facility will bolster the US's aerospace competitiveness. Here in studio, we've got Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck. Peter, great to talk to you on the back of what was a very eventful investor day. ### Neutron Rocket Development **Interviewer:** Let's start with that 10-year lease at the NASA test site in Mississippi. Obviously, there was already a big footprint there for this space, but what does this particular location mean in terms of your ability to build on Rocket Lab's ambitions? **Peter Beck:** Yeah, so you know, we're developing Neutron, which is a medium to large launch vehicle. In order to test engines quickly and efficiently, you need very large infrastructure. So we're super fortunate to be able to leverage a previous government asset. It would take you half a decade to build that infrastructure there, so the ability to kind of come in there and take over that infrastructure really accelerates our program and accelerates the timeline for us to be able to deliver Neutron to the market. For us, it's a really significant piece of asset and time reduction. **Interviewer:** Neutron, obviously that next step in terms of where the company is headed. What does the timeline look like for launch on that right now? **Peter Beck:** We're trying to get something on the pad by 2024, which is a pretty aggressive timeline. But given that it's a similar kind of time frame that we developed Electron, the rocket that we launch now, and we're leveraging a lot of the things that are on our current launch vehicle that port basically directly across to Neutron. The avionics and software don't care what size a rocket is, so there's a whole bunch of stuff we move directly across. This isn't our first rodeo - we've done this before, so that gives us confidence we can meet those timelines. ### Current Business Operations **Interviewer:** In the meantime, your core business obviously looking at the Electron launch here. You've now looked at Virginia as a key spot, but you've now gone through what is it, 30 successful launches in terms of small satellites. How big is that market and how quickly is it expanding for you right now? **Peter Beck:** So the total launch market is around about a 20 billion dollar TAM, and small launch is obviously a segment of that. But by having the Electron launch vehicle which, as you mentioned, is leading the market on small launch, when we bring on Neutron, it really gives us about 85 percent of the addressable market we can actually address with those two launch vehicles. **Interviewer:** And so you mentioned that the TAM, specifically the total addressable market, expanding significantly over the next few years. Does that incorporate those two pieces that you just mentioned? **Peter Beck:** Yeah, so I think it's important - most people think of Rocket Lab as a launch company, and it's probably something to do with the name. But the reality is that two-thirds of our revenue actually come from our Space Systems division. So while launch is a very important element of the company and it is the enabler, and we've got a very active rocket program, actually the Space Systems part of our business is bigger than our rocket business. What we're trying to build here is actually an end-to-end space company where customers come to us and we build their satellites, we launch their satellites, and sometimes we even manage their satellites on orbit for them. ### Financial Strategy **Interviewer:** You are a publicly traded company. You came through market through a SPAC. We have seen a significant downturn in the equity space overall, but especially in some of these high-growth spaces that aren't necessarily profitable. How are you trying to balance the ambitions that will ultimately mean just more costs, more investment, at a time when investors are saying, "When are we going to get to that point where it's profitable?" **Peter Beck:** I think the big difference between Rocket Lab and many others in this space is that we have a product and we have a real business. We're generating cash, and we have a clear path to profitability. Neutron is the only thing that's really consuming cash within the business at this point in time. Electron, as you mentioned, we've launched it 30 times, and our Space Systems business is doing very well as well. So the big difference between us and others is that we actually have a real business. We used that SPAC process and the proceeds - we over-funded ourselves to the tune of 717 million, and we spent about 180 million on acquisitions, building a lot of robustness into the company. We have a very healthy balance sheet, so we have no liquidity issues, and we're fully funded. That's the major difference between probably us and a lot of others in the space that came to market with a dream - we came to market with a product and a real business. ### Venus Exploration Mission **Interviewer:** Let me ask you about the dream though, because maybe not the focus of shareholders, but the probe called the Venus Life Finder - this is the first private mission to Venus. May 2023 is what we've heard before. Are you on track for that timeline, and what specifically does Venus offer for those who are saying, "Well, what is there to explore there?" **Peter Beck:** So this is very much a philanthropic mission. We have a lot of partners involved in this mission, from MIT, the science team, and basically the whole point of this is that with the discovery of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus, that is a bio life sign marker. We recently went to the Moon with our Lunar Photon mission for NASA, and that really built the spacecraft that is enabled to go to Venus. So we have the hardware, we have the capability to go to Venus, and if you have the opportunity to determine if there's life outside Earth or not, that's a pretty big opportunity, a pretty big thing to do. So we're doing it in nights and weekends, and we'll see if we get in 2023. It's not the priority of the company, but certainly if we could even help try and prove that there is life outside Earth, I think that would be a pretty monumental discovery if we can make it happen. **Interviewer:** You said it's a passion project, but certainly a lot of people interested. It's fascinating to see the exploration part of all this. Peter, it's good to have you in studio. **Peter Beck:** Great to be here, thank you.