Peter Beck: Rocket Lab

When the Heavens Went on Sale: The Misfits and Geniuses Racing to Put Space Within Reach
by Ashlee Vance
Published 8 May 2023

(Planet) A Planet image of one of the Chinese missile silos—aka bouncy houses of death—spotted by Decker Eveleth. (Planet) Peter Beck on his rocket bike. (Rocket Lab) Peter Beck during his rocket pilgrimage in the US. (Rocket Lab) Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket awaiting launch. (Kieran Fanning) Rocket Lab’s launch complex on the Māhia Peninsula in New Zealand. (Rocket Lab) Rocket Lab’s production line in New Zealand. (Rocket Lab) Rocket Lab’s Darth Vader–inspired Mission Control center in Auckland. (Rocket Lab) Rocket Lab’s CEO, Peter Beck, at the company’s launch site in New Zealand. (Rocket Lab) Chris Kemp and Adam London at a party held inside Astra’s Orion building.

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Beyond that, Astra had hired one of Google’s top executives to build an automated software system that would unite all of the company’s operations from the test stands to the rocket to the launcher.* Chris Kemp and Peter Beck never feuded in public, but the men did not really care for each other. Kemp had visited Rocket Lab and Beck while scouting launch companies on behalf of Planet Labs and had been given the royal treatment. Beck had flown Kemp by helicopter to Rocket Lab’s launchpad on the Māhia Peninsula. He had also revealed a great deal about Rocket Lab’s technology and future plans, hoping to win a number of launch contracts from Planet. After the trip, Kemp did tell Planet that they should use Rocket Lab, and the companies had formed a partnership. Once Kemp started Astra, however, Beck viewed the visit to New Zealand in a new light, seeing Kemp almost as a spy on an intelligence-gathering mission.

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For people who already fancied themselves as the next Elon Musk in their dreams, the call to action was loud and clear: Get yourself a team and some money. Let the great rocket race begin. The Peter Beck Project Chapter Eight Big, If True Elon Musk called in the early part of the evening. Or at least my evening. It was November 2018, and I was staying in Auckland, New Zealand, for a couple of weeks, renting a house in a nice suburban neighborhood. My day had been spent hanging out at the main factory of Rocket Lab, a maker of small rockets, and my thoughts had been on the company and its founder, Peter Beck. One of Musk’s assistants, however, had contacted me after my Rocket Lab visit to say that Elon would be calling any minute, which required a change of focus.

Fully Automated Luxury Communism
by Aaron Bastani
Published 10 Jun 2019

‘SpaceX Is about to Launch Its Monster Mars Rocket for the First Time – Here’s How It Stacks Up Against Other Rockets’. Business Insider, 4 January 2018. SpaceX. ‘SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System’. YouTube.com, 27 September 2016. Birth of a Private Space Industry End, Rae Botsford. ‘Rocket Lab: The Electron, the Rutherford, and Why Peter Beck Started It in the First Place’. Spaceflight Insider, 2 May 2015. Spacevidcast. ‘SpaceX Reaches Orbit with Falcon 1 – Flight 4 (Full Video Including Elon Musk Statement)’. Youtube.com, 28 September 2008. SpaceX. ‘Orbcomm-2 Full Launch Webcast’. YouTube.com, 21 December 2015.

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‘Rocket Startup Sees Big Future in Military Launch’. Space News, 1 July 2018. Gush, Loren. ‘Rocket Lab Will Launch Its Small Experimental Rocket Again this December’. The Verge, 29 November 2017. Knapp, Alex. ‘Rocket Lab Becomes a Space Unicorn with a $75 Million Funding Round’. Forbes, 21 March 2017. Lo, Bernie and Nyshka Chandran. ‘Rocket Lab Nears Completion of World’s First Private Orbital Launch Site in New Zealand’. CNBC, 28 August 2016. ‘Rocket Lab Reveals First Battery-Powered Rocket for Commercial Launches to Space’. Rocket Lab USA, 31 May 2015. Pielke, Roger, Jr. and Radford Byerly, Jr. ‘The Space Shuttle Program: Performance versus Promise’.

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One such company is Rocket Lab. Founded in New Zealand in 2009, it was the first private company in the Southern Hemisphere to send a booster rocket into space. Now based in the United States, its stated mission is to remove the barriers to mass space commerce by providing frequent, low-cost launch opportunities on its Electron booster rocket. While bigger players have their eyes fixed on manned missions to other planets, the fact that smaller outfits are capable of innovating in this area – albeit exclusively with smaller payloads – is remarkable. As the sector grows it will be companies like Rocket Lab that become the backbone of an incipient industry.

Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX
by Eric Berger
Published 2 Mar 2021

It has shown that private companies and private capital, working alongside the government, can do amazing things in space. Entrepreneurs have had an easier time attracting funding for all manner of space ventures after investors witnessed the success of SpaceX with its Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets. “It helped the whole industry,” said Peter Beck, whose successful Rocket Lab company has launched more than a dozen small Electron rockets from New Zealand since 2017. “It proved that a private company could successfully deliver cargo and satellites to orbit. And not just for launch, but for spacecraft as well, they showed that a commercial company can play in a domain that had typically belonged to the government.”

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SpaceX demonstrated that private capital can do meaningful things in space. And regulators have learned from SpaceX what commercial launch is all about, and they have a political mandate to help rather than hinder. But the new companies have gone slower. Only one private company with new technology, Rocket Lab, has actually reached orbit. It took eleven years and seven months to do so. Firefly was founded in January 2014, and as of Fall 2020 had not reached orbit or even attempted a launch. Virgin Orbit began to get serious about building a small orbital rocket in December 2012, and it, too, had not reached orbit by late 2020.

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See also Omelek site Redstone Arsenal, 56 Reduced-gravity flight, 141–42 Reingold, Jennifer, 86 Relativity Space, 248, 251 Rémy Martin, 27–29, 145 Renaissance Hotel, 12–13 Ressi, Adeo, 9–10, 12, 237 Reusable launch systems, 230–34 Richichi, Jeff, 168, 231–32, 262 Ride, Sally, 50, 99–100 Riley, Talulah, 216 “Risk tolerance,” 245 Rocket Boys (Hickam), 153 Rocketdyne, 32, 33, 126. See also Aerojet Rocketdyne Rocket Lab, 236, 245 Rocket reuse, 230–34 Role models, 99, 100 Romo, Eric, 155, 261 Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, 55, 58, 67, 169. See also Omelek site Rotary Rocket, 142 Roth, Ed, 184 Sales, 95–116 Scaled Composites, 39–40 Scorpius, 79–80 Sea Launch, 125, 126 Seal Beach, 53 Searles, Rachel, 21, 22 Sea salt spray and corrosion, 121–23, 233 Sensors, 124, 136 September 11 attacks (2001), 98–99 Sexism, 51, 62 Sheehan, Mike, 185, 190–91, 193, 195–96 Shotwell, Gwynne, 255–56 at Aerospace Corporation, 102 Air Force and, 61–62 background of, 99–101 at Chrysler, 101–2 Falcon 1’s Washington, D.C. debut, 105 Flight One failure, 120 Flight Four launch, 202–3 success, 210–11 hiring of, 95–98 Lockheed Martin and, 112–13 at Microcosm, 50, 95, 96, 102 Omelek site, 54–55 Quake parties, 17–18 sales, 17, 54–55, 96, 97–98, 103–4, 106–7, 112–14, 115, 116, 216, 220 222 Shotwell, Robert, 202–3, 210 Sloan, Chris, 262 Slosh baffles, 127–28, 138, 140 Society of Women Engineers, 100 Solar sails, 10, 164 Soyuz, 93 Space and Missile Defense Command, U.S.

Reentry: SpaceX, Elon Musk, and the Reusable Rockets That Launched a Second Space Age
by Eric Berger
Published 23 Sep 2024

In the United States there are SpaceX alternatives more efficiently run, most notably Rocket Lab. The company’s founder and chief executive, Peter Beck, is a pretty amazing dude. If you read Ashlee Vance’s book, When the Heavens Went on Sale (Ecco, 2023), you can’t help but be impressed by how far Beck has come, starting from nothing and nowhere. However, Rocket Lab has substantially fewer resources to hand than SpaceX or Blue Origin. I eagerly anticipate Rocket Lab’s new medium-lift launch vehicle with a reusable first stage, but it is more than a decade behind the Falcon 9. Frankly, I believe Bezos should buy Rocket Lab and empower Beck. That has the best chance of molding Blue Origin into a true SpaceX competitor.

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Complex 39A launch sites/pads. see also individual sites Lee, Cassie Li, Florence lidars Lim, Ricky Lindauer, John Lindenmoyer, Alan liquid hydrogen liquid oxygen densified and helium COPVs load-and-go fueling Lockheed/Lockheed Martin Loverro, Doug LOX ball Lucas, Kenton Lucid, Shannon Lueders, Kathy Lunar Lander Challenge Lyons, Lauren Maezawa, Yusaku “Magic Dragon,” Mann, Nicole Marino, Dan Markusic, Tom Marmac 300 barge Mars settlement Martin Marietta Massey, Eric Masten Space Systems McAleenan, Mike McAlister, Phil McAuliffe, Christa McDivitt, Jim McDonnell Douglas McDonough Marine Service McGregor test site McKeown, Matt McNally, Bill Mercury spacecraft Merlin 1C engines Merlin 1D engines Merlin engines Merritt Island methane fuel Miller, Kevin Mir space station Mock, Kevin Monteith, Wayne Moon, Scott Morgan, Kathy Mosdell, Brian Motorola Mueller, Tom Muratore, John Murray, Eric Musk, Elon Reeve and Altan and AMOS-6 on annual rocket launches on Block 5 rocket on Blue Origin and Buzza and Cape Canaveral launch site and Commercial Crew program and Couluris and Crew Dragon critics of decision-making time for demands made by Dnepr launches sought by and Dragon and drone ship design earliest employees of and Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy financial problems for and first NASA contract and flight termination system on full, rapid reusability and future of SpaceX government critics of and Grasshopper Helms on and in-house building of fairings and Intelsat aborts and Iridium’s launch deal Koenigsmann on and landings and Launch Complex 39A lobbyists’ distrust of and Merlin engines and Mosdell and NEXT launch politics of and propellant densification public perceptions of and resupply missions on reusable rockets on reusable spacecraft on rockets’ horizontal velocity and Rose on rules and regulations and SES-9 launch and Shotwell and SLC-40 site and spacesuits SpaceX founded by and SpaceX philosophy and Starlink and Starship success of at Tesla on test tripod and Thompson and transporter erector Twitter acquisition by and ULA creation vision of and webcasts work culture under NASA and AMOS-6 mission Artemis Program of cargo delivery contract from (see also Commercial Resupply Services) Chilton at Commercial Crew program of cost approvals for cost of parts approved by crew losses for Curiosity rover of and Dragon exploration as goal of Falcon Heavy used by female flight directors at Helms at International Space Station built by investment in SpaceX by Launch Complex 39A of Lunar Lander Challenge of Merritt Island site of Moon mission of private vehicle requirements of and propellant densification reusable rocket attempts by safety reviews by Saturn V rocket and scrap metal deals spacecraft recovery by space shuttle program of (see also space shuttles) SpaceX’s relationship with and SpaceX’s unorthodox philosophy and supersonic retropropulsion transport of large boosters by National Reconnaissance Office national security satellites Nedelin, Mitrofan Nelson, Bill New Glenn rocket Newton, Chris NEXT constellation Northrop Grumman Nyberg, Karen Obama, Barack Obrocto, Brad Octaweb design Of Course I Still Love You, ORBCOMM satellites Orbital Sciences Orion spacecraft Pagel, Lee Palitsch, Erik parachutes Parmitano, Luca Pentecost, Douglas Petit, Gavin Pettit, Don pintle injectors Point Nemo polar satellites Policht, Kary Pomerantz, Will Pournelle, Jerry Progress spacecraft propulsive landings Proton Putin, Vladimir Python, Monty Quayle, Dan Ramamurthy, Bala Reisman, Garrett Relativity Space Rench, Phillip reusable rockets. see also Starship Delta Clipper densification needed for Falcon 9 (see Falcon 9) as goal of SpaceX hydraulic systems for maintenance on NASA’s attempts at recovery of Russia’s view of Richeson, Justin Ridings, Holly Rocketdyne rocket engines. see also specific engines Rocket Lab rockets. see also specific types of rockets critical design reviews for flight software for fuel needs for horizontal speed for launch noise levels for liquid oxygen from pressure in reentry of reusable (see reusable rockets) spacecraft vs. of SpaceX static fire tests of transport of Rockette (dog) rod ends Rogozin, Dmitry Rose, Robert Rosen, Lee Rossoni, Mike RS-68 engine RUAG “run” tank Russia Russian space program Sabatier process Sager, Alyssa Santa Susana Field Laboratory Saturn V rocket Schindzielorz, Howard SES SES satellites Shelby, Richard Shepard, Alan Shotwell, Gwynne Sierra Nevada Corporation Sloan, Chris Smith, Bob Smith, Scott Soyuz spacecraft. see also specific spacecraft critical design reviews for “Magic Dragon” mock-up of reusable space industry Space Launch Complex Space Launch Complex 4 East Space Launch Complex Space Launch Initiative space policy space shuttles. see also specific shuttles spacesuits SpaceX. see also individual projects and people American-made rockets of budgets and costs at competing priorities at critics of as destination for young engineers earthquake contingency plans of financial problems of first launch site of founding of goal of Helm’s accommodations for launch sites for Mars settlement as mission of as military and NASA contractor NASA investment in NASA’s relationship with new launch tradition for “normal” life after major events at others’ disparagement of potential future for satellites launched and operated by space industry transformed by success of United Launch Alliance rivalry with unorthodox philosophy of work culture of SR-71 “Blackbird,” Stafford, Thomas stage separation system stage telemetry Starhopper Starliner Starlink Starship Star Wars program Stewart, Cory Stoke Space Strategic Defense Initiative Stults, Sam Suffredini, Mike SuperDraco thrusters Taylor, Mike TEA-TEB flow Tenenbaum, Jason Tesla Thales Alenia Space thermal imaging cameras Thaicom Thompson, Chris thrust chamber thrusters thrust structure thrust vector control (TVC) actuators Titan rockets Tooley, Jeff transporter erector (TE) Tripathi, Abhi Trump, Donald Twitter (X) United Launch Alliance (ULA) United Steel Building Universal Documentation System Vandenberg launches Van Pelt, Darin vertical landing challenge Virgin Orbit von Holzhausen, Franz Wagner, Chuck Wales Crane & Rigging Service Wallden, Chris Ward, Jeff water deluge system Werner, Vincent White, Bryan Williams, Suni Wilmore, Butch Wilson, Ed Wooster, Paul X-33 space plane Xombie vehicle Zuckerberg, Mark ABOUT THE AUTHOR Photo Credit: Amy Carson Photography ERIC BERGER is the senior space editor at Ars Technica, covering everything from private space to NASA policy, and author of the book Liftoff (William Morrow, 2021), about the rise of SpaceX.