Why Space Infrastructure Costs 10x Less Now | Peter Beck

Peter Beck (0:00)

I can give you another example of a mission that we completed earlier this year, called Victor's Haze, where the government gave us a call up and we had 24 hours to integrate our payload, a spacecraft that we built, launch it and rendezvous with a spacecraft in orbit. And within 16 hours and 42 minutes, we're already in orbit.

SPEAKER_2 (0:19)

Wow!

Peter Beck (0:20)

So, yeah, so you mean, this is the new world, right? Where commercial companies can truly respond at kind of, you know, typically what you would have thought of in a nation or a defense kind of cadence.

SPEAKER_2 (0:35)

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to MTS. Today, I am joined by Peter Beck, who is the founder and CEO of Rocket Lab. Rocket Lab launches the Electron Rocket, builds satellites and spacecraft components, and is developing its larger reusable Neutron Rocket, and has increasingly become a major contractor for US national security space programs. Peter, so excited to have you on MTS.

Peter Beck (0:57)

Oh, thanks very much for the time, much appreciated.

SPEAKER_2 (1:00)

I know you're calling in from New Zealand. I know this is exactly where Rocket Lab actually began back in 2006 I am super curious. I feel like space is just an area where more people are excited than ever before, maybe besides the 80s. I don't know. Who knows?

What was the world like back in 2006? What is the world like now? What is the biggest difference in how people are talking about space in general?

Peter Beck (1:26)

Yeah, that's a great question. So as you say, I started the company over 20 years ago. And when I first started the company, I remember everybody was talking about there would be a point in time where there would be the democratization of launch, meaning that governments would no longer be responsible for launch and it would be commercial entities responsible for launch. And then fast forward to today, I don't think any governments are building rockets anymore. It's all commercial entities.

So I think the space industry has gone through massive transformation in those last 20 years. But more importantly, I would say, and more relevant, the growth in the industry right now is insane. And I would say it's like exponential. What used to be done by governments is done by commercial for sure, but that pace is just continuing to grow.

SPEAKER_2 (2:20)

So there's so much growth in the industry, there's nothing like it before. And I know when people typically think of Rocket Lab, my assumption is that most people just think about the Rockets, because that's what you guys are largely known for. But there's so much more that you guys actually do, what you guys expand is a lot broader. And as you alluded to earlier, there's so much growth in the industry, there's a lot more commercial players actually building these things. Tell me a little bit about the whole stack where Rocket Lab actually plays a role.

Peter Beck (2:50)

Well, firstly, I probably shouldn't have called it Rocket Lab, I should have probably called it Space Lab because, and the Rocket always steals the show because it's this big roaring stick in the sky, so it always steals the show. But to your point, if you think about the space industry, you can pretty much divide it up into three chunks. The first chunk being the very obvious one being Rockets, and that's about a 10 or $20 billion industry. And then the second chunk you can think about as being spacecraft or the tools in space to provide services, $20 to $30 billion total addressable market there. And then the reason why you do all of those things are applications in space, actually services that we provide from space down to all of us on Earth. And space is weird that it's hidden infrastructure. So you don't drive past it every day, so you don't see it, so it's not like a road. But actually, everybody interfaces with space every single day, whether you realize it or not. So all of these services are being provided from space.

But if you think about what Rocket Lab is trying to do here, is we're trying to combine all three of those things together. So yes, we build rockets, yes, we build satellites.

But more recently with our acquisition of Iridium, we're also a services company from space. And I guess why that's important is because when you mix all those things together, your ability to develop and put those services in orbit is drastically improved. And if you can imagine getting in line for building satellites or getting in line for a ride to space.