Only SpaceX launches more rockets from U.S. soil each year than Rocket Lab.
Firmly established as a key player in the aerospace industry, the company isnt just sitting back.
To date, Electron has launched more than 160 satellites to space.
Illustration: Vicky Leta
Now based in Long Beach, California, Rocket Lab is very good at what it does.
Rocket Labs progress can be attributed in large part to its smart innovations.
Rutherfords are also thefirst 3D-printed engines to fly on multiple space missions.
The company is in the midst of building a fully reusable medium-lift launch vehicle.
DubbedNeutron, the rocket will include theunique Hungry Hippo fairing designand the reusable Archimedes engine.
This vision extends to creating satellites and spacecraft components, as well as managing space assets.
I recently spoke to Beck about whats happening at Rocket Lab and whats next for the company.
George Dvorsky, Gizmodo: What is your background?
Peter Beck: My background is unusual to say the least.
As you’ve got the option to probably tell from my accent, Im not from America.
In fact, it had zero before I started Rocket Lab.
So a very non-traditional start.
I joke among my peers that Im the only non-billionaire rocket CEO.
Most of my competitors fall into that category.
So, yeah, a very nontraditional background, though I am a mechanical engineer.
We dont like to fail fast on the big stuff, but fail fast on the small stuff.
Were not afraid of taking big swings at innovation.
We were the first to put a 3D-printed rocket engine in orbit.
And of course, not everybody 3D prints their rocket engines.
One other thing that I drive home to everybodyprobably the hardestis to make beautiful things.
If you make it beautiful, at least it looks good.
We really care about quality engineering and building beautiful things, and innovation flows deeply through the business.
Were willing to take big swings at things that we think are going to have big payoffs.
Beck: If we play our cards right, we play a big one.
Theyre going to be a merging of two, where things get blurry.
They dont want to know about the thermal bias on a radiator on a satellite.
Beck: I think youre starting to see some really interesting trends.
Another one is pharmaceutical manufacturing from space.
As to how were playing in those things, we have a finger in every pie.
Two-thirds of our revenue comes from our satellite manufacturing arms or satellite component arms.
Through those, were deeply involved in play in all of those kinds of elements.
Gizmodo: Are there specific technologies youre hoping to develop in the coming decade?
So everywhere you look in the space industry, its upscale.
Thats really where the majority of the challenge lies.
By the late 1950s, we achieved the maximum performance you could achieve out of burning fuels.
There is nothing more to give.
Until we get away from burning propellants, were locked to building ever larger rockets.
Gizmodo: Why is 3D-printing so important to Rocket Lab?
Beck: Its all about manufacturingit enables some geometries that werent possible under other manufacturing techniques.
And then at the end of the day, the market is tiny and nobody cares.
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