How Peter Beck Built $1.8 Billion Rocket Lab
New Zealander Peter Beck didn’t have a college degree and couldn’t talk his way into NASA and Boeing – so he built a US$1.8 billion rocket company, Tom Huddleston Jr. reports for CNBC’s Make…
Tag Archives: Rocket Lab
Launch Market Leaders Rocket Lab Count Down
New Zealand-founded Rocket Lab stock is ready for take-off, according to US investment bank and financial services company, Cowen. Carmen Reinicke reports for CNBC. The firm recently upgraded shares of the company to outperform from…
Rocket Lab Grabs Booster With a Helicopter
Rocket Lab aims to join Elon Musk’s SpaceX in reusing rocket boosters, which can lower costs and increase the frequency of launching to orbit, Kenneth Chang writes for The New York Times. The small…
Space Man Peter Beck Makes Annual Bloomberg 50
“In high school a guidance counsellor told Peter Beck that a career building rockets was ‘absurdly unachievable’. And it did take the New Zealander a while to realise his teenage dream. For more than…
Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck Living His Space Dream
Rocket Lab’s founder Invercargill-born Peter Beck talks to Al Jazeera about moon shots, deep space exploration and overcoming dream crushers. Beck, who dreamed of launching rockets ever since he was a child, is a major…
New Zealand Signs Space Agreement with NASA
New Zealand has announced it is the latest country to sign a space agreement with NASA, just as the country’s nascent space industry begins to take off, Associated Press correspondent Nick Perry reports. New Zealand became…
Rocket Lab Launches Sixth Successful Mission of ‘20
Rocket Lab USA Inc. has completed another mission sending a satellite into space aboard one of the New Zealand-founded company’s Electron launch vehicles, Elijah Chiland reports for the Los Angeles Business Journal. It was…
Rocket Lab Welcomes Electron Back to Earth
In a major milestone, the New Zealand-based launch company Rocket Lab has successfully recovered an orbital-class rocket after parachuting it back to Earth from near-space – only the second company in history ever to…
Search for Life on Venus Could Begin at Rocket Lab
New Zealand-founded company Rocket Lab may be able to send a small spacecraft to probe the clouds of Venus long before NASA or other space agencies are able to do so, industry journalist Jonathan…
How Our Space Industry is Causing Turbulence
Life on the Mahia Peninsula used to be quiet: surfing beaches, historical monuments, and good snapper fishing, Eleanor Ainge Roy writes for The Guardian. Then space came to town. Four years ago, Rocket Lab’s Peter…
Rocket Lab’s Virginia Launch Pad Opens
Rocket Lab recently celebrated the opening of a launch complex on the Virginia coast in the United States, half a world away from its first launch pad in New Zealand, award-winning science writer and…
Dyslexia Entrepreneur Matt Strawbridge Heads to US
When Matt Strawbridge was a boy growing up in New Zealand, school became difficult. He couldn’t read given his dyslexia, and his grades suffered. Looking back, the experience isn’t filled with joy, he told…
Rocket Lab Now Building Customisable Satellites
Small satellite launcher, New Zealand-founded Rocket Lab is getting into the business of making satellites in addition to launching them. The company has announced that it is offering a new service to customers: a…
Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck at TED in Vancouver
Peter Beck is a space entrepreneur with a rocket and launch pad in New Zealand that has permission for flights “every 72 hours for the next 30 years”. Beck recently spoke at the TED…
Rocket Lab Launches First NASA Mission
New Zealand-founded spaceflight startup Rocket Lab has launched 13 tiny satellites on its first-ever mission for NASA, just a month after acing its first commercial flight. All of the payloads separated from the Electron’s “kick…
Rocket Lab the FedEx of Space Industry
A small rocket from a little-known company lifted off last weekend from the east coast of New Zealand, carrying a clutch of tiny satellites, New York Times journalist Kenneth Chang wrote last week. That…
Peter Beck Discusses Ambitious Space Plans
In an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck discusses his company’s ambitious plans to tap the growing market for transporting satellites into space. He sees a bright future for…
Rocket Lab Unveils New Production Facility
“Rocket Lab has expanded its global footprint with the unveiling of a new production facility that ‘rethinks the way orbital rockets are built’”. Space Tech Asia reports. “The new 7,500 sq/m…
Peter Beck is Changing the Launch Equation
Rocket Lab is aiming high. The California-based company, founded in New Zealand by Peter Beck, plans to make space much more accessible via its 17m Electron rocket, which can loft about 225kg of payload…
Rocket Lab to Open Second Launch Pad
Silicon Valley-funded space launch company Rocket Lab is planning “to open a second launch site in the United States to complement its remote New Zealand pad.” Charlotte Greenfield reports for
Māhia World’s Best Spot for Rocket Launching
“The Māhia Peninsula has been a holidaymakers’ haven for decades. It offers sandy beaches, hot springs and scenic trails. And, for those of a technological mindset, it also offers the world’s first private orbital-rocket-launching…
Peter Beck’s Mission to Conquer Space
Rocket Lab entrepreneur Peter Beck’s recent launch into orbit of the 65-sided, carbon-fibre satellite Humanity Star drew a barrage of flak from scientists. But the New Zealander remains undaunted. Beck explains his decision to Ian…
Why the Tech Elite Love New Zealand
This year, Rocket Lab plans to blast a 56-foot vehicle into orbit on a mission to revolutionize access to space. The rocket “was manufactured in Auckland and will launch from New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula,”…
Rocket Lab Launches the Humanity Star
The glittering Humanity Star satellite, which may be the brightest object in the night sky, serves no purpose other than to “make people look up and realise they are on a rock in a…
New Zealand’s Tech Industry Boots Up
Majestic scenery, adventure tourism and agricultural products may be central to New Zealand’s international image, but technology and digital exports are growing fast, prompting industry calls for greater recognition, David Brooks reports for Nikkei…
New Zealand Opens First Rocket Launch Site
New Zealand’s first orbital launch site, Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, on the Mahia Peninsula has been officially opened by New Zealand Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce. Joyce congratulated Rocket Lab’s chief executive and founder…
Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck Taking on SpaceX
Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck was more productive than most teenagers. He spent much of his youth tinkering in the family’s garage workshop in small-town New Zealand, amid welding and milling equipment. At 15 he…
Peter Beck’s Space a Domain for All
New Zealander Peter Beck was one of the most talked about entrepreneurs at this month’s EY’s World Entrepreneur of the Year conference in Monaco, because 40-year-old Beck, who grew up in Invercargill, is about…
NZ Launches Into Space Race With 3D-Printed Rocket
Rocket Lab, a Silicon Valley-funded space launch company, has just launched the maiden flight of its battery-powered, 3D-printed rocket Electron from New Zealand’s remote Mahia Peninsula. “Made it to space. Team delighted,” Rocket Lab said…
New Zealand’s Rocket Man Peter Beck Taking Off
When New Zealander Peter Beck arrived in Silicon Valley in 2013, he gave himself three weeks to secure funding for his small-satellite launch vehicle start-up, Rocket Lab, the Los Angeles Times reports. Instead of blanketing…
Rocket Lab Is Preparing For First Launch
Small satellite launch company Rocket Lab has announced that the first of its Electron rockets has arrived at its launch complex in New Zealand. “Its arrival commences a series of test items that need…
Welcome to New Zealand’s Gateway to Space
New Zealand has become the unlikely frontier in a drive to open a private rocket-launch site, servicing a soaring market for tiny satellites, many the size of a shoebox, Rob Taylor reports for the…
Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck Building Business in Space
Self-taught New Zealand-born scientist and CEO of Rocket Lab Peter Beck, 39, explains to accountancy industry magazine Acuity how – and why – he is making space more accessible. At its Auckland base, Rocket Lab…
Countdown to New Zealand’s First Space Launch
The New Zealand government has signed a contract with Rocket Lab, “a commercial space launch operator using technology developed in New Zealand, for launch operations on the Mahia Peninsula, on the east of the…
Meet the Real-Life Tech Wizards of Middle Earth
Have you ever heard of No. 8 wire? In the 19th century, farmers used the wire to build fences for sheep and later on turned it into a jack-of-all-trades material for getting work done….
Rocket Lab’s Rutherford Engine Lifts Off
A video has been posted of New Zealand-founded company Rocket Lab launching their new Rutherford engine. The burn lasts for a full two minutes and 40 seconds, completing an important flight qualification test. The company…
Space Revolution Hatching in a New Zealand Paddock
The next revolution in space will be launching next year from a paddock in New Zealand’s remote South Island – a 16-metre carbon-cased rocket powered by a 3D-printed rocket engine. The rocket designed by Rocket…
Rocket Lab Signs NASA Partnership
The New Zealand satellite launch company Rocket Lab has signed a Commercial Space Launch Act Agreement with NASA. The partnership enables Rocket Lab to use NASA resources and launch complexes in addition to its…
Rocket Lab Signs Groundbreaking Deal with NASA
Watch this video to see Paul Henry’s full interview with Peter Beck, CEO of Rocket Lab.
Rocket Lab to Launch from Kaitorete Spit
New Zealand company Rocket Lab says it plans to build its own launch site – the world’s first commercial orbital launch range – on Kaitorete Spit in Canterbury by the end of the year. The…
Rocket Lab Deems Space Open for Business
A New Zealand rocket company, founded by inventor Peter Beck in 2007, says it has found a way to drastically cut the cost of satellite launches, by 3D printing rocket components. The Rocket…
Rocket Lab Unveils 3D-Printed, Battery-Powered Rocket Engine
Auckland-based commercial space company Rocket Lab has unveiled their 3D-printed battery-powered Rutherford engine. The liquid-fueled, battery powered engine is capable of 4,600 pounds of thrust and will power propulsion of Rocket…
Rocket Lab launches Commercial Space and Satellite Service
New Zealand is bracing to get a big slice of the global satellite launch market with its unique space programme getting ready to blast off by 2015. Peter Beck, founder and CEO of private initiative…
Planet Earth is blue
From Great Mercury Island, 18km off the Coromandel Peninsula, Mark Rocket and Peter Beck of privately-owned company Rocket Lab successfully launched the 6-metre rocke Atea-1 into space. The rocket, which was carrying a 2kg payload of…
A NZ Space Odyssey
A NZ company has plans to launch rockets into space, carrying scientific packages, DNA and human ashes. Auckland-based Rocket Lab, co-directed by Peter Beck and Mark Rocket, will start sending its 17-foot carbon-fiber “Atea” rockets…
