Rocket Lab Founder Peter Beck's vision for the space industry's future | Equity Podcast

Rocket Lab's Vision for the Space Industry

• The founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, Peter Beck, was interviewed about his vision for the space industry's future, discussing the importance of becoming a fully integrated one-stop shop for space companies to thrive and survive (42s).
• Beck mentioned that the purpose of Neutron, Rocket Lab's new launch vehicle, is twofold: to break up the medium launch monopoly and to launch the company's own satellites (1m27s).
• A successful Neutron launch would open up opportunities for Rocket Lab to move forward with various projects, but Beck emphasized that the first launch is just the beginning, and the real challenge lies in scaling up production (1m22s).
• Beck stated that Rocket Lab has grown into something much bigger than it used to be, but it's still not at its final form, which he envisions as an end-to-end space company (2m16s).

The Importance of Vertical Integration

• The plan for Rocket Lab was always to be an end-to-end space company, and Beck believes that in 5 to 10 years, all large space companies will look like this, with launch being just an enabler for something much larger (2m44s).
• Beck cited SpaceX's Starlink as an example, where building a competing platform requires the ability to build satellites at scale, which in turn requires fully vertically integrated component systems (3m7s).
• To be successful in the space industry, companies need to launch at scale and at a particular economic point, which may lead to a blurring of lines between space companies and service companies in the future (3m25s).
• Historically, companies have focused on either being a launch company or a satellite company, but some large aerospace companies like Boeing have done both launch and satellites, albeit with a government focus (3m44s).
• The difference now is that commercial companies are emerging, aiming to control every aspect of the space industry from start to finish (4m32s).

Scaling Production and Acquiring Technologies

• The space industry has a large number of small, specialist shops that build high-quality components, but they often struggle to scale up production when needed (5m12s).
• Some legacy providers in the industry also struggle with scaling, and this has led to companies like Rocket Lab focusing on acquiring or creating their own technologies to address these issues (5m30s).
• An example of this is Rocket Lab's acquisition of Sinclair, a reaction wheel manufacturer, which has allowed them to increase production from 150 wheels per year to over 2,000 (6m1s).
• Rocket Lab has also targeted other subscale or underperforming components in satellites, such as solar panels, and either acquired or developed their own technologies to improve them (6m18s).
• The company has worked with legacy solar panel manufacturer Cero, but has also developed its own solar panel technologies (6m28s).
• Rocket Lab acquired a company that previously worked on the James Webb Telescope and Mars projects, but the company wasn't scaled, so they transformed the space by painting the walls black, adding logos, and removing cubicles, ultimately becoming the largest solar cell or space-grade solar cell manufacturer in the world (6m47s).

Creating Scale and Overcoming Barriers

• The company systematically tries to create scale in the industry by addressing the need for capital, which is often a barrier for new companies, especially when competing with legacy companies that have been around for 20 years (7m1s).
• The decision to buy or build is crucial, and it's essential to consider the costs, such as the $30 million required to develop a specific technology, and to determine when to invest in research and development (7m9s).
• In the case of solar cells, there is a significant barrier to entry due to decades of government-funded research, making it challenging for new companies to jump in (7m22s).
• On the other hand, Rocket Lab built a spacecraft called Escapade, but the legacy titanium sphere manufacturers in the US were unable to deliver the required tanks, leading the company to develop a new 3D printing process for thin-wall titanium tanks (7m42s).
• This new process allowed Rocket Lab to build thin-wall titanium tanks in any shape and size without incurring significant costs, and they can now be a supplier for titanium spheres or other shapes (8m8s).

Building Interplanetary Spacecraft and the Capstone Mission

• When building an interplanetary spacecraft, the company starts by assessing the project's scope and requirements, and they often underestimate the complexity of the task, but a good dose of skepticism and arrogance can be helpful in driving innovation (9m5s).
• The team at Rocket Lab has around 2,000 employees with a diverse range of experiences and talents, which enables them to develop new technologies and execute complex projects like the Capstone mission (9m43s).
• Building spacecraft is a fascinating field, with a passion for creating something that can go to any planet, and lessons have been learned along the way, including the realization that spacecraft are easier to build than rockets, but deep space missions are more challenging due to radiation and harsh environments (9m49s).
• The experience of building Capstone, a spacecraft that was sent to the moon, provided valuable lessons, including the need to correct for trajectory errors and account for solar pressure, which can alter the spacecraft's trajectory (9m57s).
• The process of designing a trajectory for Capstone was complex, requiring 24 hours to redesign the trajectory, and involved accounting for various factors, including engine shutdown transients and solar pressure (10m49s).

Competition, Talent, and a Life-Finding Mission to Venus

• Physics-based simulators have become more useful in recent years, with improved tools and math, allowing for more accurate simulations and better design of spacecraft (11m55s).
• There is significant competition for talent in the field of spacecraft building, with many companies competing for skilled engineers and technicians, and Rocket Lab has a high threshold for hiring, with statistics showing it is twice as hard to get into Rocket Lab as it is to get into Harvard (12m10s).
• A life-finding mission to Venus is currently being worked on, which is a completely private and unfunded project, representing a small financial drain on the company, and is being developed on nights and weekends (13m3s).
• The mission aims to target the clouds of Venus, specifically a zone about 50 km off the surface, where conditions are believed to be suitable for life, and will use a probe with a nephometer instrument to search for life (13m26s).
• The probe will have around 250 seconds to interface with the Venusian atmosphere and will provide a rudimentary "go/no-go" signal for life (13m51s).
• The project is using the basis of the Capstone bus to get to Venus and will separate off a probe once it arrives (13m45s).
• Venus is considered a more interesting planet than Mars, despite being more challenging to explore, with a hostile environment making it impossible to put a footprint on the surface (14m36s).

Elon Musk, Time Management, and Space Traffic Concerns

• Elon Musk's partisan actions as a fellow space entrepreneur were questioned, but it was stated that he can do what he wants, and the focus is on building rockets (15m2s).
• About 30% of the time is spent on the Venus mission, with the rest divided between being the chief engineer of the company and handling CEO responsibilities (15m32s).
• The proliferation of satellite constellations in various orbits is a concern, as it may complicate space traffic and increase the risk of incidents, with multiple countries and companies, including China and the US, planning to launch large constellations (16m3s).
• A set of rules for space traffic is needed, but it may take an incident in orbit for nations to come together and establish regulations (16m42s).

The Need for Space Traffic Management

• The increasing number of satellites in orbit is already causing issues, with launch windows shrinking from 3 hours to 3 minutes in some cases, and requiring the development of new modeling techniques to manage the traffic (17m15s).
• A traffic monitoring system for space would require transparency, with all governments and commercial entities providing information on the location and orbit of their assets, as well as their intended maneuvers (17m56s).
• The challenge of predicting conjunctions between satellites is mathematically impossible if spacecraft are continually moving, making transparency the only solution (18m23s).
• There may be tension between the need for transparency and the desire of countries to keep their space activities secret for defense or other reasons (18m51s).
• A potential solution would involve all governments and commercial entities providing information on their space assets and intended maneuvers, allowing for the computation of conjunctions and the management of space traffic (18m30s).
• The development of a space traffic management system would require international cooperation and agreement on a set of rules and regulations (16m45s).

Rocket Lab's Role and the Challenges of Space Traffic

• Rocket Lab delivers spacecraft to customers, who are then responsible for the operations, orbit, and mission of the spacecraft, and Rocket Lab has no responsibility over these aspects (19m12s).
• The space industry faces challenges with the high closing speeds or conjunction speeds of spacecraft, and the visualizations of spacecraft in orbit can be misleading due to their large size (19m36s).
• As Rocket Lab operates more spacecraft in the future, building an oversight mechanism for space traffic management will be crucial, but currently, there are no international rules for logging and complying with space traffic (20m16s).
• The company believes that better communication and coordination among spacecraft operators can help mitigate the risks of conjunctions, and it's not a complex issue to solve (20m26s).

The "Wild Wild Space" Documentary and Early Days

• A documentary titled "Wild Wild Space" profiled Rocket Lab, but the company's founder tried to stay away from the documentary and only provided limited access to the filmmakers (20m42s).
• The founder believes that the documentary was an interesting profile, but he disagrees with its thesis, and the experience of having a documentary crew around was not comfortable (20m58s).
• Rocket Lab's founder values the early days of the company, when he spent more time working with his hands, and he tries to get back to those days whenever possible, such as when he spent time with the Ares team at the company's facility (21m44s).

Type Three Fun and the Future of Reusability

• The space industry is not necessarily about having fun, but it can be rewarding, and the challenges faced can be looked back on as enjoyable, a concept referred to as "type three fun" (22m3s).
• Stoke Space and Inversion Space are pursuing full reusability and targeted re-entry of assets and cargo, respectively, which could be a realistic future for the industry, particularly for high-value items (22m26s).
• High-value items, such as those with high scientific or financial value, may justify the cost of re-entry and recovery, as seen in the Vada contract where a spacecraft hosted a capsule that was re-entered and landed in the Utah desert (22m50s).
• There may be a down mass market for re-entry and recovery, but the size of this market is uncertain, and new markets could emerge as companies explore new technologies and ideas (23m5s).
• As a full-stack company, there is more freedom to explore new and interesting ideas, and companies like Rocket Lab are always looking at new and innovative concepts, with some employees even having job titles like "crazy thinking" (23m17s).