Speaker 1: I've got some questions that have come in from shareholders
Speaker 1: over the last couple of days. So the first one
Speaker 1: is what made you pick space?
Speaker 2: So the reason I like space is that you can
Speaker 2: have maximum impact on this planet for kind of minimum
Speaker 2: resources and effort.
Speaker 3: So think about this.
Speaker 2: You can put a spacecraft in orbit, and we did
Speaker 2: take an example of a weather spacecraft we put in
Speaker 2: orbit a few years ago, and that whether spacecraft can
Speaker 2: provide data and services and knowledge to literally hundreds of
Speaker 2: millions of people every day times the duration of the
Speaker 2: spacecraft's lifetime, which could be ten years. So there's crazy
Speaker 2: little box of electronics can have just huge amount of
Speaker 2: impact to so many people. And there's very few industries
Speaker 2: that you can have that amount of impact or have
Speaker 2: that amount of reach. So that's primary, you know, the
Speaker 2: thing I love about space.
Speaker 3: Plus it's cool. Yeah. Cool.
Speaker 1: The next question is are you contributing to space junk
Speaker 1: and is there a plan to clean it up?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So I think anybody who launches anything to space, you know,
Speaker 2: has to put their hand on their heart and say, yet, well,
Speaker 2: sometimes we leave some stuff behind. We've always taken in
Speaker 2: the approach that we want to leave the minimum out
Speaker 2: behind as we can possible. So you know, the way
Speaker 2: that Electron goes to orbit is quite different to most rockets.
Speaker 2: You'll notice that there's like a little bit on the
Speaker 2: top called to kickstage, and we try and deorbit that
Speaker 2: wherever possible and just leave behind only the customer spacecraft.
Speaker 2: Now that's not the normal thing, like a lot of
Speaker 2: a lot of countries will just leave the whole spent
Speaker 2: upper stage of the rocket and orbit. So that you know,
Speaker 2: that's that's pretty nasty. And I think there's a there's
Speaker 2: a common misperception that space junk is just dead satellites.
Speaker 2: Actually it's like one third dead rockets and two thirds
Speaker 2: dead satellites or thereabouts. So we certainly do everything we
Speaker 2: can to you know, to make sure we have the
Speaker 2: minimum impact possible. And I would say as far as
Speaker 2: companies go or businesses go, we're probably the furthest leaning
Speaker 2: forward on kind of advocating for kind of regulation. Generally,
Speaker 2: as an entrepreneur, you don't want any regulation, but this
Speaker 2: is an instance where you know, we think that some
Speaker 2: traffic management is going to be critical, and we certainly
Speaker 2: certainly advocate for that.
Speaker 1: Internationally, I mean, there's definitely seems to be an exponential
Speaker 1: curve and with regards to how much is going up,
Speaker 1: isn't it when you say d orbit like, so you've
Speaker 1: got to you have to some additional propulsion or.
Speaker 3: Something, right, correct?
Speaker 2: Ye, So that that keck stage has a little rocket
Speaker 2: engine on it and we circularize the orbit, deploy the spacecraft,
Speaker 2: and wherever possible, we will burn that engine again and
Speaker 2: put it into a into a declining orbit.
Speaker 1: What we touched on a couple of these earlier. But
Speaker 1: what are the macro factors that impact the space industry
Speaker 1: and therefore rocket labe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think from a I guess purely from
Speaker 2: a sheer price standpoint. You know, there's there's there's plenty
Speaker 2: of you know, macro factors. You know that that that
Speaker 2: influence that that that we have no control over. But
Speaker 2: kind of generally the space industry seems pretty insulated from
Speaker 2: from a lot of these things, just because of the
Speaker 2: duration of the of the programs typically.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you have any sensitivities it's or much sensitivity
Speaker 1: to the interest rate environment and stuff obviously.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, yeah, Yeah, within the share price, you know, you know,
Speaker 2: we can we can have a flawless launch and the
Speaker 2: share price goes down simply because of a macro environment
Speaker 2: kind of thing.
Speaker 3: And favorite space movie.
Speaker 2: Two thousand and one Space Odyssey, and as you want
Speaker 2: on track, Yeah, yeah, so as you walked into the facility,
Speaker 2: hopefully if you've watched that movie enough times, you'll recognize
Speaker 2: the entrance portal is actually the very similar to the
Speaker 2: portal of the you know, the Hell Computer.
Speaker 3: What's the most accurate space movie?
Speaker 2: Well, actually two thousand and one Space is actually very accurate.
Speaker 2: It's one of the few space movies that doesn't have
Speaker 2: sound in space. You find you see a lot of
Speaker 2: a lot of those movies, and you know, the cruiser
Speaker 2: will ignite its engineer here this roar.
Speaker 3: It's no.
Speaker 1: Right, it's fully over It quite a fundamental hurdle. I
Speaker 1: would say that, Yeah, what steps are you taking to
Speaker 1: improve the growth of Rock labment?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I mean you can see you can see
Speaker 2: the you know, the growth rate today you need that
Speaker 2: seventy percent. So you know, we're always looking at new opportunities,
Speaker 2: and you know we're investing heavily into projects and products
Speaker 2: like neutron. You know, neutron is is going to be
Speaker 2: a huge needle mover. And then you know if you
Speaker 2: look at the combination of the space and the and
Speaker 2: the launch you know that in opening up that that
Speaker 2: three hundred and twenty billion dollar TAM, you know, we're
Speaker 2: moving reving pretty aggressively towards that.
Speaker 1: And has Rocke Lab considered adding another launch site in
Speaker 1: New Zealand or Australia.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: Generally I avoid launch sites. They are giant cost centers.
Speaker 2: It costs a lot of money to operate a launch site,
Speaker 2: to staff it, to to keep it, to keep it running.
Speaker 2: So I want the minimum amount of launch sites possible
Speaker 2: to achieve our launch manifest because they are you know, they're.
Speaker 3: P and L burners.
Speaker 2: So we don't we don't want more of those.
Speaker 1: What are the competitive advantages in operating out of New
Speaker 1: Zealand and what are the challenges?
Speaker 2: Yeah, great question. So the reason why we have operations
Speaker 2: in New Zealand is primarily because of that launch site.
Speaker 2: So all the launch sites in the United States are
Speaker 2: pretty much flat out, and we made a strategic decision
Speaker 2: to not have to line up behind the you know,
Speaker 2: the big players in the industry and way to turn.
Speaker 2: So you know, it wasn't an easy one because we
Speaker 2: had to you know, there had to be a technology
Speaker 2: safeguard agreement signed between the two countries. A bilateral treaty
Speaker 2: had to be created between New Zealand and the US.
Speaker 2: A whole lot of rules and regulations had to be
Speaker 2: created and amended. A Space Agency was created. So like,
Speaker 2: it wasn't an easy thing to do, but we realize
Speaker 2: it now because you know, we are the third most
Speaker 2: frequent launch rocket in the world. And what we're able
Speaker 2: to do is poke our head outside the hangar and go,
Speaker 2: today's a good day for launch.
Speaker 3: We'll guard launch today.
Speaker 2: And moreover, it's it meets our business model where customers
Speaker 2: move around on us. So if you're lined up at
Speaker 2: the cape and you miss your window, you're going to
Speaker 2: wait months to get your next window. Whereas if we
Speaker 2: want to move a couple of days down to Mahre,
Speaker 2: no big deal.
Speaker 3: We'll just move a couple of days. Any other companies
Speaker 3: using the MA here inside or was it just.
Speaker 2: I mean, we operate the only private orbital launch site
Speaker 2: in the world.
Speaker 1: I'll ask this one because it's here so tasty? Or
Speaker 1: eat them cheese nice? Now we've got the important stuff
Speaker 1: out of the way to give into this one. Once
Speaker 1: Neutron R and D is complete and the rocket is operational.
Speaker 1: Do you anticipate that you'll need to reduce your engineering
Speaker 1: R and D headcount become cash flow positive or will
Speaker 1: the staff be able to be reassigned to further space
Speaker 1: systems development while still maintaining a healthy profits.
Speaker 2: Ye, that's a great question. So if we were just
Speaker 2: going to stop at Neutron, maybe, but we're not. You've
Speaker 2: seen you've seen our kind of growth a gender here.
Speaker 2: You know, Neutron is one important piece of a puzzle
Speaker 2: to get to an endo ends space systems company and
Speaker 2: and really move into those products and services and delivering
Speaker 2: infrastructure and or bit And I mean the same question
Speaker 2: could have been asked of Electron. But the one thing
Speaker 2: I will say is the one thing that that has
Speaker 2: always been a throttle on this business is talent. And
Speaker 2: we can never pipe enough people, enough engineers into this
Speaker 2: business to you know, to continue on.
Speaker 3: The growth trajectory that we want.
Speaker 2: So I just can I never see that that being
Speaker 2: you know, a challenge and and I think you know,
Speaker 2: Neutron is is a very transformational kind of product line
Speaker 2: in its own right, and the amount of engineers that
Speaker 2: that you have to you to deliver that product isn't
Speaker 2: is as many as you think, and those engineers will
Speaker 2: be quickly kind of you redeployed into into other growth opportunities.
Speaker 3: There's a good question a bit of a site to
Speaker 3: it at the moment. So where are we, Peter, and
Speaker 3: what we got here?
Speaker 2: So this is sort of part of the foyer and
Speaker 2: this is actually a recovered upper stage of an electron rocket.
Speaker 2: So this is the very first rocket that we brought
Speaker 2: back down from space and we cut it up and
Speaker 2: stuck it in the foyer. And if you ever want
Speaker 2: to touch something that's been to space and back, then
Speaker 2: now is a chance.
Speaker 3: Very cool. And where did you Where did you find it?
Speaker 2: So we fished this out of the ocean. So this
Speaker 2: was on a return to send a mission. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: flight sixteen and you know it separated in its normal
Speaker 2: trajectory and then followed a ballistic arc. We re entered
Speaker 2: the atmosphere and then landed in the ocean and then
Speaker 2: picked it back up.
Speaker 1: So one of the coolest receptions, well certainly the corest
Speaker 1: reception of you've been into we heard a story about
Speaker 1: the idea of this. When you walk into rocket Lab,
Speaker 1: you can tell us a little bit about the thinking
Speaker 1: into the space.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so as you into the portal behind you there,
Speaker 2: it should look a little bit like two thousand and
Speaker 2: one Space Odyssey, And you know, you want to be
Speaker 2: transformed when you come in here into what the space
Speaker 2: business is actually like. So you know, this area is
Speaker 2: kind of a reception for sure, but also behind all
Speaker 2: those glass panes there is you know, that's mission control.
Speaker 2: So it gives a great opportunity for staff, for visitors
Speaker 2: to come here and actually experience a launch and watch
Speaker 2: watch mission control as it kind of happens.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and what are the people in their mission there's
Speaker 1: no launches today, but we've got a bunch of people
Speaker 1: in there. What are they sort of up to on
Speaker 1: the day to day.
Speaker 2: Yes, so on on a day to day basis, you
Speaker 2: know that they're running either whole stage tests or stack
Speaker 2: tests or launching. We also run some some of our
Speaker 2: satellite missions out of there, where share five mission controls
Speaker 2: across all of our sites in the world, and at
Speaker 2: any one time, you know, we're controlling spacecraft or launching
Speaker 2: rockets and various kind of testing activities out of all
Speaker 2: of those mission controls.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Great, and we've got a sort of NAIs deck.
Speaker 1: It looks like the Bell site or something from But
Speaker 1: can you sell us a little bit why you chose
Speaker 1: to the nasdack is the place to list the company?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: So, I mean from from a high growth tech company standpoint.
Speaker 2: The Nasbeck narsdeck exchange, you know, just really suited us,
Speaker 2: you know most it's most accurately represents who we are
Speaker 2: as a company. Investing involves risk. You might lose the
Speaker 2: money you start with. We recommend talking to a licensed
Speaker 2: financial advisor. We also recommend reading product or sclosure documents
Speaker 2: before deciding to invest.