- Sir Peter Beck has built Rocket Lab into a $3.5 billion space company and SpaceX competitor.
- The New Zealander didn't go to university and started out building rockets in his spare time.
Elon Musk dominates space with SpaceX — but one of his biggest rivals, who got his start strapping rockets to anything with wheels, thinks that's about to change.
Sir Peter Beck, the founder of Rocket Lab, does not have the typical background for the CEO of a billion-dollar company.
The New Zealand native didn't go to college and spent time working at a dishwasher manufacturer before starting the rocket firm, which now has a market cap of $3.5 billion.
In his spare time, he experimented with rockets and jet engines, building rocket packs, bikes, and even rocket-powered rollerblades.
Always learn to roller blade before you strap a rocket on. https://t.co/IR0XRE6lCA
— Peter Beck (@Peter_J_Beck) October 6, 2020
"The original plan was to go and work for NASA. But I went on a bit of a rocket pilgrimage and soon learned that a foreign national with no university degree would be highly unlikely to land any kind of position at NASA," Beck said in a recent conversation with Business Insider.
"Even if I did, I couldn't really see one singular person in that organization affecting any kind of meaningful change," he added.
Taking on Elon Musk
Now, Beck has built Rocket Lab into one of the world's most prominent space companies, behind only SpaceX in the number of commercial rocket launches it conducts.
The company's small-scale Electron rocket celebrated its 50th launch earlier this year. A new, larger rocket, named Neutron, is expected to be launched in mid-2025.
Beck describes Neutron as a direct competitor to SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. Like the Falcon, it will be partially reusable and aims to transport cargo into orbit at a fraction of the cost of traditional rockets.
"Neutron is really important for two reasons. One, we need to bring some balance to the market with the Falcon 9, but we also need a vehicle of our own to launch our own satellites and put our own stuff in orbit," said Beck.
SpaceX, which conducts more rocket launches than any other company or country, looms over the rest of the space industry — and its sheer size has sometimes caused tension with rivals.
Beck told The New York Times in May that SpaceX sets some of its launch prices below what they cost the company to undermine emerging competitors — a charge that SpaceX disputes.
SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. Speaking to BI, Beck said SpaceX's "monopoly" was no accident, but added that he thinks Musk has pushed the industry forward.
"They're very good at building rockets and very good business people as well," he said.
"I think there's probably some questionable practices in there, but it's just business at the end of the day. You either compete or die, and that's absolutely fine. It certainly spurs us along, and if the Falcon line wasn't so dominant, then we may not have even looked at building the Neutron," Beck added.
Nevertheless, the Rocket Lab CEO believes adding a rocket that can compete with SpaceX's Falcon 9 will offer businesses valuable choices — especially companies building rivals to SpaceX's satellite internet service Starlink but still have had to rely on the company to put their satellites into orbit.
"There is a number of customers that are putting up competing platforms, and you can imagine that's a fairly uncomfortable situation," said Beck.
Amazon, which is building a rival satellite internet network called Project Kuiper, struck a deal last year to use SpaceX's rockets to put some of its satellites into orbit.
The new space race
Beck is more skeptical about some of Elon Musk's grandiose plans for SpaceX. The billionaire has frequently discussed his intention to use Starship, his company's newest giant rocket, to colonize Mars.
In July, The New York Times reported — citing sources familiar with the matter — that SpaceX employees had been directed to draw up plans for a Martian city. Musk also reportedly suggested that up to one million people could be living on the planet within the next 20 years.
Beck said such an endeavor would require "tens of thousands" of Starship rockets, and expressed doubt over its value. "I guess I'm a capitalist at the end of the day. Is there a market to go to Mars? I don't know," he said.
"Elon wants to go to Mars for his reasons, but I'm focused on building a profitable, enduring space company. So my view of the world is a little bit different. I have no desire to put a footprint on Mars," Beck said.
Despite the success of commercial companies like SpaceX and Rocket Lab in recent years, the space industry is still notoriously difficult to break into, with high-profile companies such as the Richard Branson-backed Virgin Orbit collapsing.
Beck said the ultimate test of a space company was being able to "put something on the launchpad that works."
He pointed to the rise of Rocket Lab as evidence that space, once the domain of big governments and large defense contractors, is now there for the taking for smaller firms and startups.
"The reality of the space industry being once just a completely government-dominated domain where the large defense companies would gobble up the various contracts is over," he said.
"In the last 10 years, we have really witnessed the democratization of space," he added.