Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. This is Bloomberg business
Speaker 1: Week Inside from the reporters and editors who bring you
Speaker 1: America's most trusted business magazine, plus global business, finance and
Speaker 1: tech news. The Bloomberg Business Week Podcast with Carol Messer
Speaker 1: and Tim Stenebeck from Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, we'll speaking of rockets. You may remember, just
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago, we spoke with our colleague
Speaker 2: Ashley Vance about the new HBO documentary Wild Wild Space.
Speaker 2: The film based on Ashley's book When the Heavens Went
Speaker 2: on Sale, The Misfits and Geniuses racing to put space
Speaker 2: within reach. That film, Carol follows three space entrepreneurs, including
Speaker 2: Peter Beck, the founder, president, and CEO of Rocket Lab.
Speaker 2: It's a publicly traded company that manufactures and launches rockets,
Speaker 2: including one schedule to launch tomorrow carrying a satellite for
Speaker 2: a Japanese Earth observation company.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great film that really kind of gets
Speaker 3: into it. Rocket Labs customers, by the way, they include NASA,
Speaker 3: the US Base to Force, DARPA, Planet Canon, the National
Speaker 3: Reconnaissance Office, and so much more. Peter back joining us
Speaker 3: now from Mississippi. Peter, First of all, great to have
Speaker 3: you here. We were so excited to have you on
Speaker 3: with us. How are you and tell us what you've
Speaker 3: been up to as of late.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, thanks, thanks very much, it's great.
Speaker 5: I'm just just doing a multitude of things, is all
Speaker 5: all good CEOs should should be doing.
Speaker 4: And we're building.
Speaker 5: A big rocket right now. So I'm down in Mississippi
Speaker 5: doing engine tests with the team here.
Speaker 4: So there's a lot on.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, let's just cut right to the chase. Then
Speaker 2: give us an update on the development of some of
Speaker 2: these rockets that you're working on, specifically of Neutron. Tell
Speaker 2: us what's going on. What's the latest.
Speaker 5: Yeah, So Neutron is a kind of a solution to
Speaker 5: kind of the mid launch monopoly.
Speaker 4: As as you could say. And so it's scheduled to
Speaker 4: launch mid next.
Speaker 5: Year, and we're we're working hard right now on lots
Speaker 5: of fulsion building in building complete launch sites and factories
Speaker 5: and all of all the components that go into into
Speaker 5: a big rocket.
Speaker 3: So can you give us an update in terms of,
Speaker 3: you know, when you anticipate that this is going to
Speaker 3: be you know, ready for deployment a little bit in
Speaker 3: terms of the time frame.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, sure, So we're looking to get this aple
Speaker 5: on the pad the next year and and get get
Speaker 5: it away, so hopefully people won't won't have to wait
Speaker 5: wait long. But what I would say is it's a
Speaker 5: a very.
Speaker 4: Different looking rocket like if you if you.
Speaker 5: If you see it, it's it's very much, you know,
Speaker 5: an advanced launch vehicle for the modern times, and you know,
Speaker 5: lots lots of innovation in it that should should really
Speaker 5: drive down cost even further.
Speaker 3: It is pretty phenomenal. Folks who listen watch us, I
Speaker 3: mean know that my dad was involved in doing kind
Speaker 3: of He was an engineer aeronautical and worked on a
Speaker 3: lot of guidance systems for the original space program, so
Speaker 3: we kind of grew up with it. And he's not around,
Speaker 3: but I always think he would find it kind of amazing,
Speaker 3: you know, these rockets that can come back and be
Speaker 3: reusable because it's just not the way it was. You know,
Speaker 3: talk to us again, how you kind of rethink about
Speaker 3: how you were doing it so differently than it was
Speaker 3: done you know, by government programs for so long.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, we'll start with a small rocket, the
Speaker 4: little Electron rocket, you know that you ever pulled it out.
Speaker 4: It's got its fifty first mission tomorrow.
Speaker 5: And you know we rereinted that through the US atmosphere
Speaker 5: completely passively and then push it out of the ocean.
Speaker 5: Neutron is a propulsive landing, so we landed on the
Speaker 5: barge or the launch back at the launch site. But
Speaker 5: if you if you look at the vehicle, you know
Speaker 5: when it lands, there's there's no bit missing, there's no bearing,
Speaker 5: mission missing, second stage missing. It's literally as it looks
Speaker 5: as it took off and ready to load the next customers,
Speaker 5: payloaded and go again.
Speaker 2: Peter I said that you're taking on SpaceX, you're taking
Speaker 2: on Elon. If we look at the numbers, as of
Speaker 2: mid July, SpaceX had launched seventy rockets this year, rocket
Speaker 2: Lab had launched just eight. Again, this was mid July.
Speaker 2: How do you compete with SpaceX? Is there enough room
Speaker 2: for both of you given that they were quite a
Speaker 2: bit earlier to the game, and they're bigger at this point,
Speaker 2: so much bigger.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it looks sometimes it's a huge advantage to
Speaker 5: be a first over and sometimes a budget to be
Speaker 5: a second And you know, I would I would point
Speaker 5: out that if you look at the Electron rocket and
Speaker 5: how quickly that rand was actually the fastest rocket to
Speaker 5: reach fifty launches in commercial history, faster than SpaceX and.
Speaker 4: Faster than anybody else.
Speaker 5: And you know it will continue to do that firs
Speaker 5: to be we expected to be first to get to
Speaker 5: one hundred as well. So yeah, sometimes you know you
Speaker 5: can start at the back, but it doesn't mean you
Speaker 5: finish lists for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, just ask Apple. They're doing just fine when it
Speaker 3: comes to smartphones, and they weren't first out of the gate.
Speaker 3: Having said that Elon Musk, there isn't a day Peter
Speaker 3: that goes by that. Tim and I don't talk about
Speaker 3: probably Elon or Tesla or his universe in some way.
Speaker 3: His antics though, can certainly get him into trouble. And
Speaker 3: I think about government contracts and so on and so forth.
Speaker 3: Does his antics help you in any way?
Speaker 4: Oh? Look, I'm proudly boring.
Speaker 5: I'm the boringest person you could imagine, and my focus
Speaker 5: is on building a large, successful Walkert company and nothing else.
Speaker 5: So yep, we have a very very clear and laser focus.
Speaker 3: Well, my point being that people are like, you know what,
Speaker 3: I don't know that I want to identify. Even though
Speaker 3: Elon is doing so much in this world, I want
Speaker 3: to go with someone who is did you say boring
Speaker 3: that you were is a little bit more boring?
Speaker 5: So that's what I mean.
Speaker 3: Does Boring does his antics kind of make people say,
Speaker 3: whether it's the US government or some other government, say,
Speaker 3: you know, Peter, we'd like to work with you.
Speaker 5: Well, look, I mean, nobody can contest right now that
Speaker 5: there is a launch monopoly. You know, the vast majority
Speaker 5: of all launches conducted by space X, and they've been
Speaker 5: very successful.
Speaker 4: And good one. But you know, no monopoly survives the.
Speaker 5: Test of time, and it provides opportunities for others to
Speaker 5: come in and compete. So, you know, we have a
Speaker 5: number of tests and customers, both government and commercials, who
Speaker 5: are really really desperately looking for alternatives for a variety
Speaker 5: of reasons.
Speaker 2: Hey, Peter, earlier this week your company announced it a
Speaker 2: completed testing of two spacecraft that are headed to Mars.
Speaker 3: It's going to.
Speaker 2: Enable the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamic Explorers mission,
Speaker 2: also known as Escapade. Yeah, I'm wondering if you think
Speaker 2: new Glen from Blue Origin will be ready for Escapade.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, you hit on an important point.
Speaker 5: Actually, two thirds of the revenue and scale of Rocket
Speaker 5: Landers actually from our spacecraft division, So two two thirds
Speaker 5: of the company is building spacecraft. Launch is really important
Speaker 5: and it always steals the show.
Speaker 4: But what we're trying to build here is an.
Speaker 5: Inter space company where customers come to us and we
Speaker 5: can you know, we can design and build the spacecraft,
Speaker 5: launch it, and then even operate it for them. But
Speaker 5: to your question, look, our spacecraft already. That's that's all
Speaker 5: I know, and so we're good to go whenever Blue is.
Speaker 2: It's sort of so it sort of doesn't matter to
Speaker 2: you because your end of the bargain is being held up.
Speaker 2: You guys are ready.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're ready, and we look naturally we want to
Speaker 5: see the mission launching and be successful.
Speaker 4: So you know, we weally rooting for them to you know,
Speaker 4: to do that. Hey.
Speaker 3: You know, one thing that's certainly front and center for us,
Speaker 3: especially I feel like in the last week, but I
Speaker 3: feel like it's every week is climate change and what's
Speaker 3: going on. And you've been working, uh certainly with NASA
Speaker 3: about some climate change missions. What can you share with
Speaker 3: us about some of the missions that you have been
Speaker 3: involved in.
Speaker 5: Yeah, We've been involved in a number of missions, as
Speaker 5: you point out, you know, one of them Tropics, which
Speaker 5: was a really important only launched last year. So back
Speaker 5: to that mission, uh, you know, following hurricanes and providing
Speaker 5: greater resolution and hurricanes. Uh, you know, super topical right
Speaker 5: now and and you know, really valuable and have has
Speaker 5: already had a massive impact. I think that's one of
Speaker 5: the one of the great things about the space industry
Speaker 5: is you can put a couple of little boxes of
Speaker 5: electronics on all but and literally impact millions of people's lives.
Speaker 2: Very cool stuff.
Speaker 3: It is pretty cool stuff.
Speaker 2: Hey, Peter, before we let you go, you how are
Speaker 2: are you thinking? Just thirty seconds, how are you thinking
Speaker 2: about Mars?
Speaker 4: Look? I love Myles, but I love Venus way way more. Really,
Speaker 4: I don't. Yeah, I don't think about Mars too much.
Speaker 5: I think much more about Venus because I think there's
Speaker 5: a closer analog to Earth and that we actually have
Speaker 5: a private mission for Venus to look for life in
Speaker 5: the clouds.
Speaker 4: So love Mars. That sorry, Venus is better.
Speaker 3: Second planet from the Sun's sixth largest planet that's out there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're going to send You're going to send people
Speaker 2: up on rocket Lab rockets anytime soon.
Speaker 4: Not anytime soon. I mean, we're certainly making sure the
Speaker 4: neutron rocket is human rate and ball. That comes down
Speaker 4: to making making sure that it means towards criteria. But
Speaker 4: we need the market to evolve.
Speaker 5: There needs to be more destinations before I think that's
Speaker 5: commercially viable.
Speaker 2: All right, Peter back, really appreciate you joining us. Peter
Speaker 2: Beck is the founder, president and CEO of rocket Lab.
Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Business Week podcast and anywhere else
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Listen live weekday afternoons from two
Speaker 1: to five pm Eastern on Bloomberg dot com, the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: tune In, and the Bloomberg Business App. You can also
Speaker 1: watch us live every weekday on YouTube and always on
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Jermale