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Sir Peter Beck Opens Up on Childhood, Inspiration for Rocket Lab, Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos Competition

February 02, 2025 / 01:38:30

This episode features Sir Peter Beck, founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, discussing his journey in the space industry, his recent knighthood, and the impact of his work. Key topics include the challenges of running a space company, his daily routine, and his views on entrepreneurship.

Sir Peter shares his thoughts on receiving the knighthood, emphasizing that it represents the achievements of entrepreneurs and engineers in New Zealand. He reflects on his early career, the importance of hard work, and the challenges he faced in establishing Rocket Lab.

The conversation touches on the significance of Rocket Lab's missions, including launching satellites and contributing to major projects like the James Webb Telescope. Sir Peter also discusses his passion for space and the importance of making a positive impact on society.

Listeners gain insight into Sir Peter's personal life, including his upbringing in Inago and the support he received from his family. He also shares anecdotes about his experiences in the industry and his interactions with notable figures like Elon Musk.

The episode concludes with Sir Peter's reflections on the future of Rocket Lab and his aspirations for the company, highlighting the importance of teamwork and perseverance in achieving success.

TL;DR

Sir Peter Beck discusses his journey with Rocket Lab, his knighthood, and the impact of space exploration on society.

Episode

1:38:30

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kiwi's Love at

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First like Finn we're making

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waves generate switch online

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today sir Peter Bick welcome to my

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podcast oh it's a pleasure to be here D

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um how how does that it's only been like

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six months ago that you got the the the

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sewer title The Nigh Hood how do how

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does it sit with you uh it's very odd to

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be fair it's very odd and and and it

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take takes a while to to to kind of you

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know process that and uh obviously a

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huge honor but you know the way I look

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at this one is it's is it's for all the

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the entrepreneurs and and engineers in

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the country because there's not that

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many of them that that that get a title

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so you know I take great pride in the

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fact that it's it's it's for a it's not

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I don't really think it is for me I

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think it is is for those for that you

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know type of people is it your email off

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no what about when you fly and the the

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forms you have to fill on sewer no no oh

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come on lean into it it's only the

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people I don't like then you got to call

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me sir if I don't like you then then

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that's that's when you know it's it's um

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great to have you here uh you've been

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like a this is going to sound like an

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ncus but it's it's it's factual you've

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been like a dream guest for the podcast

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and I happened to bump into you a couple

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of weeks ago at this Art Gallery in pel

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of all places so I went on up and

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introduced myself and um uh like I got

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the surprise of my life like you you

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said you you're familiar with the

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podcast which was really yeah it was

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yeah no I I really really enjoyed the

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work so you know congratulations on on

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building a great a great platform yeah

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oh

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likewise and um I said to you I'd love

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to get you on the podcast and you you um

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Palm me on to Morgan who's your vice

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president of communications and I

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thought that was going to be the end of

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it I thought this is Sir Peters get out

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of jail free card but she responded the

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the the that same and we locked in the

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date and here we are yeah there you go

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yep system works and I've done um so

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much research on you the last couple of

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weeks I Reon I've just about read and

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watched everything there is to see about

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um Peter bck um one one thing I've

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noticed is like there's not a lot of

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personal stuff online is that is that by

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Design or is it because the like the

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interviews you do they're just way more

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interested in this amazing company

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you've built no I mean it's it's it's

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it's by Design I mean um uh I try and

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keep you know a family life out of out

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of the rocket business and and um and

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that's a conscious decision uh you know

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it's it's it's a tough enough Thing by

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yourself let alone you know dragging

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your your family all through it so um so

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you know I I um I try and separate those

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two possible so what does an average day

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look

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like uh well it's I don't know it's just

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so you know America starts at at sort of

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3:00 a.m. in the morning um you know

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quite often there'll be a few I really

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try and avoid the 3:00 a.m. morning

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meetings those ones throw me a bit two

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is fine and and four four is fine for

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whatever reason three I really struggle

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with um so the day starts pretty early

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and um uh and then you know America

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wakes up and and uh and then you know

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goes to sleep and then New Zealand goes

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to sleep when New Zealand goes to sleep

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we don't have any operations in Europe

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thank God because if it was in Europe I

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wouldn't be zero chance to get in your

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sleep because I saw a quote online from

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um the Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen

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and he said um I work from the moment I

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wake up till the moment when I go to bed

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and I work s days a week when I'm

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working I'm thinking about working and

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when I'm working I'm working does that

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sound sounds about right does it really

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yeah my uh my my family have got photos

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um of me every family holiday every

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every time it's just like the family

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joke there's there's everybody doing an

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activity and there's me St stood to the

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side on my cell phone and uh it's you

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know there's photos of of of us all

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around the world as a family um doing

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that but it's like it's it's the way it

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is like you don't achieve something big

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on on kind of an 8 to five you know 5

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days a week kind of timeline if you want

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to achieve something big it just has to

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be all consuming you just love it that

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you've just got like dead aim de aim

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you've got this goal and you know what

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you want to do and nothing's going to

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stop you yeah I mean I I think it's it's

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it's really important what we're trying

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to achieve and and um yeah I mean it's

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tremendous amount of type three fun um

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but uh what's type three fun oh it's the

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fun you know type one fun is just actual

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fun and then type two fun is is like

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it's not that fun at the time but but

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you know you're still relatively

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enjoyable and then type three fun is

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like it absolutely sucks the whole time

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and then maybe a couple of years later

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you look back on it and go oh that was

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actually

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fun I've never heard that before where

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did that come from well I don't know I

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thought everybody knew that yeah um how

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well how well known are you in New

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Zealand like do do you know do people do

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people come up to you and have selfies

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and you know are you aware when you go

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to restaurants and things of people sort

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of staring at you or what do people come

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up and talk about yeah I mean um yeah

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yep that that happens that happens um a

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bit um yeah a little

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bit how does how does that sit with you

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oh used to be you know super odd but um

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but people always have just the

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loveliest things to say um so uh and you

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know being a public company now so many

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people have uh you know are shareholders

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in the company and and uh you know so

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they feel like they have a little bit of

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that ownership as well so you know it's

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always it's always always been really

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really lovely I mean uh so

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yeah that um the public company thing

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yeah so I I bought some stock in rocket

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lab when it first went on the NZ deck

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when was that by the way 2021 21 yeah

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yeah and it sort of went down and then

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it's just sort of been sitting there

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very small amount in my sh's account

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doing not much yeah then um earlier this

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year I had Paul Henry on the podcast and

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he told me I should put some money on

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Rocket lab so I put some more money in

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and it's gone exceptionally well for me

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and I'm um I've got 600 shares in the

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company how many do you

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have I there's about about 10 10% just a

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bit over 10% of the company yeah so the

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um are you are you comfortable talking

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about this

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you the the sheares and the the stake of

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the company and stuff well yeah I'll

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tell you if I'm not yeah okay okay cool

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so the the night we met at the um the

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gallery and Parell um like you became a

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billionaire overnight on paper yeah yeah

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but you made like you went to sleep and

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then overnight you made like $200

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million or something crazy like that

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yeah I mean I guess I don't really think

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of it like that I mean as as you say

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it's it's it's on it's on paper um and

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uh you know we we we're trying to trying

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to build value you know in in the

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company for for everybody to be honest

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with you the more satisfying thing is is

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um is seeing a whole bunch of uh you

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know staff all of a sudden uh all their

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hard work being recognized and and also

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investors who who have been along for

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the journey that's that's much more

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gratifying than than you know seeing

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some things on a paper for you yeah

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you're just not driven by

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by by the money at all if I if I if I

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wanted to make a billion dollars I could

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have think of a thousand things easier

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to do than this so for me that's not the

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motivation um of course uh we're a

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publicly traded company so we need to

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maximize value for the shareholders yeah

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but I mean for me personally um the

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thing that that wakes me up in the

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morning with a you know a jump in my

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step is that the space industry is one

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of the few things in the world that you

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can have tremendous amount of impact and

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the way to think about the space

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industry is is it's like infrastructure

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so when you put up a satellite into

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lowth orbit you know it provides say

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it's a weather satellite um it provides

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weather uh down to people on Earth great

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but the reality is it provides weather

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to literally millions if not tens of

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millions if not billions of people down

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on Earth and I don't know any other

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infrastructure project that you can do

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that has so much impact like uh if you

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go and build a new Harbor Bridge

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Crossing right um that's great it

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affects everybody in Oakland doesn't

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matter a toss of someone inago but it

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affects you know a relatively small

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amount of people in a positive way but

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you put something into space and every

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90 minutes it is orbiting the planet and

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every 90 minutes you have a chance to

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have a huge impact so the the kind of

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projects that we've got to work on are

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just incredible I mean uh you know we

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with's a good good example um National

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Security missions where people's lives

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matter um uh Communications missions

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Earth observation missions you name it

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we've we've had a part in a lot of those

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things and then in the Space Systems

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division uh you know we we built all of

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the solar cells for the James web

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telescope um some of the the NASA probe

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are going to the sun right now they're

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all our solar sales on on there as well

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Mars Ingenuity helicopter all of the all

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of the surface Rovers have rocket lab

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components on them so we get to play in

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in just the most amazing things that

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have just tremendous amount of

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impact yeah and then there's there's

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other stuff you're doing I got a I got a

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um DM on Instagram from someone and um

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I've paraphrase it here on this card um

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but it said sued is a legend on the East

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Coast uh so generous to the area during

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Cyclone Gabriel my dad has been an

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employee at Rocket lab in Mahia cleaning

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at the launch site and looking after

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staff houses he loves the company and

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their values so it's not just the stuff

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you're doing you're doing up there

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you're doing like a great job down here

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on the ground as well um yeah that must

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be like incredibly gratifying it is it

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is yeah know that it it is and it's and

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and I think that's yeah I mean uh look

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the technology is is is exciting all the

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of it but um you know at the end of the

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day as I was growing up um the only

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message I had from my parents is have

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the most amount of impact you can have

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with your life because you're here for a

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short period of time and and you know

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that is that is a measure of success is

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is is how much impact can you have to

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people to society to the planet um in

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the time you've got on this planet so um

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that's that's kind of The Guiding Light

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I I notic you just rolled one of your

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hours before we get and you you did

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mention in vagle as well so we'll get

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into your Roes because I I that's part

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of the story um that's part of the suped

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story that that I that I love like I had

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my cousin on the podcast a few weeks ago

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Sonia Williams she's one of the founders

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and um three of sheres yeah great and

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she's from Levin and I I said to her you

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know part of the inspiring thing about

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your story is that there might be some

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kids sitting in W college that I don't

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know when you're in a small town it's

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hard for other people to understand but

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you do have these sort of limiting

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beliefs to it agree I think you must

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find it like being from not really I

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think I think a lot of people do like

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they I don't I know maybe it's sort of

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changed now you and I are a similar age

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but I feel like you you know there is

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something about being in a small town

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that or a small City that sort of holds

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you back a little bit never for you

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never never for me never for me I I mean

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I was lucky to grow up an environment

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where anything was possible um you know

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if I if I came home and uh you know said

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that I was I was going to build a rocket

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for example um it wasn't you know I'll

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be careful with that I'm not sure you

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should do that um you know that that

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could be dangerous it was well if you're

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going to build one make sure you build a

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really really big one so there was never

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any any kind of um you know ceiling if

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you will on what we could achieve as

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boys um you know in in in my child but

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but you even got that from from I know I

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know a story about the school the school

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calling your parents and saying oh oh

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yeah yeah yeah like Peter's dreams are

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too big yeah what was the story with

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that you talked about this in a TED Talk

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yeah know so I mean I I knew exactly

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what I was going to work in the space

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industry and um and what

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age like Secondary School no it it was

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earlier than that I mean I I don't know

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I remember writing a report um on

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Haley's Comet um and that must have been

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you know in in standard four or whatever

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year that is now I can't remember but it

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was like 86 that haly's Comet was yeah

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something like that yeah yeah yeah so no

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I always knew I wanted to work in this

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work in the space industry and and work

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have something to do with space it was

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it was was very clear now what what was

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less kind of clear was how I was going

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to get there but you know the goal was

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to go and we at finessa and um uh and so

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you know when when when it came to you

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know the obligatory careers you know

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advisor session and I'm like yeah I'm

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going to go work for Nas I'm build

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rockets and do this stuff and and you

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know I was very good with my hands um uh

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in in the workshop and uh you know in in

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vagle the thing you do if you're good

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with your hands is you go and be an

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apprentice at the Ty aluminium smelter

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um so you know I I was like you'd be a

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great welder and I'm like yeah I can

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weld but um but you know I've got bigger

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aspirations than that and and and so the

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um did the careers counselor like call

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your parents and yeah yeah they called

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them in we need to have Pete Pete's got

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these unrealistic kind of expectations

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here you know we need to need to just

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make sure he doesn't go off the rails I

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think and and I remember we all just sat

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there and just nodding away and then we

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knew there was no conversation on on the

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way home in the car and there was was

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there was no acknowledgement of what we

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said and we just carried on like I think

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you know everybody just thought there

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was a crop of [ __ ] that is so cool of

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your appearance and then there's um yeah

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then there's other um like adults that

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were on on your side like I heard I read

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a story about um Mr child yeah

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grandchild's yeah your technology

00:13:01

teacher yeah yeah um and he talked about

00:13:04

just what a wonderful student you were

00:13:05

and he mentioned you and two mates um he

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gave you like the keys to the workshop

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basically he literally just fisted over

00:13:11

the keys to the to the school workshop

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and we were in there all days all hours

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of the night all weekend uh just welding

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and turning and machining and and just

00:13:19

building stuff yep have you seen him

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since or anything I haven't seen Graham

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for quite some time but um but but yeah

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i' yeah it was a few years since I've

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seen Graham yeah that's a huge huge

00:13:29

honor it's a it's really like I think

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that shows a lot of trust like giving a

00:13:32

school yeah yeah yeah yeah like yeah I

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mean I imagine now it would be pretty

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difficult for someone to just you know

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give you the keys to the school health

00:13:39

and safety and how M of issues um what

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else have I got yeah four years ago you

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did a um um an AMA on Reddit do you

00:13:48

remember that no no it wasn't you well

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it could have been but oh yeah lot

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happen since then I so four years ago

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I'm assuming it's you it seemed legit um

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this is a quote from you in a comment

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form rocket Labb is about 30% finished

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still much more to do yep so fast

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forward four years where are we at I I I

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keep the Go 100% 100% I think it's it's

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it's a baseball cap with a Moira bar on

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a string for sure yeah it just just

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keeps on keeps on moving and I think um

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uh yeah you you you you you set out you

00:14:22

set out a goal and then you go and

00:14:23

achieve it and then and then there's

00:14:25

always always the bigger thing it could

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even be a disease so you so you're

00:14:29

always going to be at 30% finished it

00:14:32

feels like it yeah it does feel a little

00:14:33

bit like it yeah well there's always

00:14:35

going to be like another Frontier yeah

00:14:37

yeah yeah yeah well I mean uh the

00:14:39

projects just get bigger I mean we we we

00:14:40

built electron and then now we're

00:14:42

building a big rocket Neutron uh you

00:14:44

know and now we're we're chasing after

00:14:46

you know a multi-billion dollar program

00:14:49

finess of doing Mass sample return to

00:14:50

try and bring samples off the surface of

00:14:52

masss so there's the opportunities keep

00:14:54

getting bigger so the aspirations keep

00:14:56

getting bigger M and another

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four-year-old quote this from your Ted

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Talk uh launch frequency is the absolute

00:15:02

most important thing MH and funnily

00:15:04

enough just like a couple of days prior

00:15:06

to us doing this podcast uh you had two

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successful launch missions in less than

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24 hours yeah from two different

00:15:11

hemispheres even Elon hasn't done that

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do you do you know do you know Elon have

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you met yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah what's

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he like oh he's a great engineer and uh

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yeah great business great businessman

00:15:22

for sure yeah yep so yes so SpaceX is a

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lot bigger than rocket lab B are you

00:15:29

like the number two number two space

00:15:30

company yeah I think I think we're it

00:15:32

depends on what metric you want to use

00:15:34

um you know if if you look at pure

00:15:36

Revenue um there's probably Ula is

00:15:37

bigger than us but is with respect to

00:15:39

like launch Cadence and and kind of what

00:15:42

people generally uh expect um will be uh

00:15:46

you know the the real competitor um it's

00:15:48

it's sort of generally yeah so you've

00:15:51

met him you've hung with him yeah is he

00:15:53

all right all right guy he's an

00:15:55

intriguing guy I'm I'm um I'm a big fan

00:15:57

of the the stuff he's done but

00:15:59

I've listened to the audio book of um

00:16:01

that I think Walter isacson did of him

00:16:02

which is a very thorough book um he's a

00:16:04

very very complex man as we probably all

00:16:07

know is he sort of like a nous a nem

00:16:11

what's the word nemesis Nemesis yeah no

00:16:13

I mean the the crazy thing about the

00:16:15

rocket industry is it does attract um

00:16:17

you know the these kind of folks and and

00:16:20

uh you know you've got Elon and Jeff

00:16:21

probably our two biggest um competitors

00:16:24

um but but you know in their own rights

00:16:26

uh you know super passionate people

00:16:28

super uh you know super driven to to

00:16:31

achieve those things and um I maybe it's

00:16:34

the South thing but um it's people are

00:16:37

just people right it's just it's they're

00:16:39

just normal people with their own their

00:16:41

own drives and aspirations and and

00:16:43

whatnot and um yeah I mean I don't I

00:16:46

wouldn't call them nemesises or or

00:16:48

anything they're just they're just you

00:16:50

know people doing a similar thing but

00:16:52

you wouldn't be caught dead in a Tesla

00:16:54

or do you have an X account yeah yeah

00:16:56

yeah I have an X account yeah yeah no I

00:17:00

I I don't have a Tesla though I prefer

00:17:02

internal combustion I'm old school so

00:17:05

um yeah how do you feel with with each

00:17:07

launch like do you do you get anxious

00:17:09

with it and when it goes well is it Rel

00:17:12

no I hate launch absolutely hate a

00:17:14

launch it's terrifying yeah

00:17:16

no why just like your stomach tuning

00:17:19

nerves or yeah yeah well I don't puke in

00:17:21

the toilet anymore so we've moved we've

00:17:22

moved on from there but you have to

00:17:25

understand that when you're launching

00:17:25

someone's satellite that that can be you

00:17:28

know more often than not you are you you

00:17:31

they may as well just you know pass over

00:17:32

the keys to their company to you because

00:17:33

if you screw that up um you know and put

00:17:36

their satellites in the drink or or or

00:17:39

destroy them then their business can be

00:17:40

over um so it's tremendous

00:17:43

responsibility um and uh you know um

00:17:47

it's it's it's very very difficult to do

00:17:49

there's really only two private

00:17:51

companies in the history of this planet

00:17:53

that have that have managed to scale so

00:17:55

um there's there's a there's a lot

00:17:57

writing on every launch and and I'm I'm

00:17:59

a naturally uh um you know a very

00:18:04

um what's the word I care a lot um so

00:18:09

paranoid I guess is the right word so

00:18:11

I'm naturally very paranoid person so um

00:18:13

you know that launch day is not not an

00:18:16

enjoyable day so the puking in the

00:18:18

toilet thing how long was that for oh

00:18:21

probably the first 30 flights something

00:18:22

like that what are we up to now oh 56 oh

00:18:25

my God so I'm get better recently yeah

00:18:27

no I'm getting B yeah and and leading up

00:18:30

to it you like what would you what would

00:18:33

your wife say like are you a pain in the

00:18:34

ass to be around like you know your

00:18:36

bundle of nerves or oh yeah you can tell

00:18:38

that there's something on your mind yeah

00:18:39

yeah yeah everyone knows launch day

00:18:41

don't don't you know don't go near Dad

00:18:43

just just leave them alone I just go

00:18:44

quiet

00:18:46

yeah you're like an all black on the day

00:18:48

of a test or something like that well it

00:18:49

is it is like that though I mean a

00:18:51

launch is a huge orchestrated event I

00:18:53

mean uh we have to monitor space weather

00:18:55

we have to close down airspace we have

00:18:57

to close down Marine space um you know

00:18:59

these a typical launch is one year in

00:19:01

the making from when the customer first

00:19:03

comes to see you to the day you launch

00:19:05

it's about one year and you know in that

00:19:07

you're you're optimizing orbits you're

00:19:09

creating structures you you know

00:19:11

sometimes you got to change the rocket

00:19:12

um there's International uh licenses you

00:19:15

have to get local licenses you have to

00:19:17

get it's a huge huge event and then you

00:19:20

know that's why I think people tune into

00:19:22

a live stream the watch launch and it

00:19:23

goes and and watch it goes away and and

00:19:25

you know go on with their life but

00:19:27

actually what you see there is a year of

00:19:28

work by hundreds and hundreds of people

00:19:30

to make that to make that a success and

00:19:32

the stakes are very high very high yeah

00:19:35

yeah yeah yeah so um I went out to to

00:19:38

rocket lab last week um for a tour and

00:19:41

it was um it was touch and go as to

00:19:42

whether it was going to be on or

00:19:44

postponed um because there was a launch

00:19:46

that was potentially happening um at

00:19:47

around the same time so where where are

00:19:49

you for that are you sometimes watching

00:19:50

it like at home on on a screen or are

00:19:53

you always at work or well I mean you

00:19:56

know it depends on on I am around the

00:19:59

world is is to where I watch it but I

00:20:01

I've certainly never ever missed a

00:20:02

launch absolutely not wow yeah just

00:20:05

going back to that um tour of your

00:20:06

factory like I think most new zealanders

00:20:08

would be surprised by what's going on

00:20:10

there like it's amazing it's um it's

00:20:14

it's incredible so used to be the Avante

00:20:16

bike Factory yeah yeah yeah and um now

00:20:18

you're making Rockets there and it's

00:20:20

everything is made on site like there's

00:20:21

no you're not buying bags of screws from

00:20:23

t-o or anything like that there was even

00:20:26

the you better explain this better than

00:20:27

me but um

00:20:29

there's almost like like a a hardware

00:20:31

store inside rocket lab so if someone

00:20:33

wants to go and get some screws they

00:20:34

need to go to this hardware store inside

00:20:37

the rocket La Factory and get them

00:20:39

because if the wrong screws are in the

00:20:40

wrong holes or something it's going to

00:20:42

screw everything up yeah yeah well you

00:20:43

take a screw um we we can trace that

00:20:46

screw to when it was made where it was

00:20:47

made right down to the material

00:20:49

certification which will say at which

00:20:52

steel mill that that particular piece of

00:20:54

metal that that screw was made out of

00:20:56

and that that's just the level of deta

00:20:58

you have to go to uh because a rocket

00:21:01

has uh you know a safety Factor at Best

00:21:03

of 1.2 meaning if something can stand

00:21:06

100 PSI uh you know at 102 PSI uh it's

00:21:11

exploded so or 120 PSI it's exploded so

00:21:14

you know the safety factor is is is

00:21:15

really low on everything so you know you

00:21:17

put the wrong screw in there that that

00:21:20

that you know slightly less duct tile or

00:21:23

whatever um you can fail the rocket I

00:21:25

mean it's it it it's literally you know

00:21:27

one screw can can bring it

00:21:29

down yeah another big surprise to me was

00:21:32

um first of all uh how many staff were

00:21:35

wearing like rocket lab merch and um

00:21:37

there were a lot that weren't so I'm

00:21:39

guessing it's not a mandatory thing you

00:21:41

but yeah so they're wearing it by choice

00:21:42

because they love being there and they

00:21:43

love being part of the company

00:21:44

everybody's super proud of of of the

00:21:46

company and they should be because you

00:21:47

know their their their work is is

00:21:49

absolutely incredible and and it's one

00:21:51

of the peculiar things about the rocket

00:21:53

industry is that uh you know your

00:21:56

launches are every launch is is followed

00:21:58

by by thousands and thousands of people

00:22:01

and uh if you have a good day then you

00:22:03

know it's thousands and thousands of

00:22:04

people have watched and that's great if

00:22:05

you have a bad day you are on CNN NBC

00:22:08

you're international news around the

00:22:10

world so you know um so they should have

00:22:13

a lot of proud a lot of Pride and and um

00:22:16

in in in their work and and what they

00:22:17

achiev because it's amazing I mean and

00:22:19

then in that factory one rocket rolls

00:22:21

off that production line every 18

00:22:23

days yeah and you got massive 3D

00:22:25

printers and yeah it's in and yeah

00:22:27

everyone looks so happy and um it's the

00:22:30

most yeah it's the most I I I suppose I

00:22:32

was expecting it to look more sterile

00:22:34

lots of white boiler suits or something

00:22:36

I don't know but there was um people

00:22:37

wandering around in like Nike Nike

00:22:39

shorts and you know Warriors t-shirts

00:22:42

and in each different Zone there was a

00:22:44

different U boom playing a different

00:22:45

genre of music it's a a very very kywi

00:22:48

looking setup yeah yeah and and I think

00:22:50

if you go across you know all of our

00:22:52

divisions I mean uh so the New Zealand

00:22:54

Factory there's there's about 700 people

00:22:56

there and there's about 2,200 in the

00:22:58

company across five different states in

00:23:00

the US and if you go you go everywhere

00:23:02

there you'll see the Black Walls and you

00:23:04

know everyone everyone wearing the merch

00:23:05

and and a similar thing um you know

00:23:07

there is there is there's no ties and

00:23:09

and stuff at at at Rocket lab I mean

00:23:12

that doesn't help the machine go faster

00:23:15

how much time do you spend on the floor

00:23:16

these days or you busy on the phone and

00:23:18

and boardrooms oh look I I try and spend

00:23:20

as much time on the floor as possible I

00:23:21

mean on electron floor not very often

00:23:23

cuz those guys are are just machines

00:23:25

they're just just cranking um but we're

00:23:27

you know I'm still the engineer for the

00:23:29

company so um you know Neutron our big

00:23:31

rocket is our biggest project so um you

00:23:34

know I'm I'm I'm all over that um both

00:23:36

in the US and and New Zealand so uh and

00:23:39

and to be honest with you that is a fa

00:23:41

my the best part of my job is is uh you

00:23:43

know getting getting getting you know

00:23:45

hands on and amongst the W amongst the

00:23:47

ways putting putting engines together

00:23:49

and solving problems that's that's the

00:23:50

best part of the whole job [ __ ] yeah you

00:23:53

love it oh and um the coolest um I think

00:23:56

Reception Area I've ever seen in a

00:23:58

business New Zealand it's amazing so did

00:24:00

did it did it remind you of 2001 the

00:24:02

Space Odyssey as you walked

00:24:05

in uh I'd seen an interview with you

00:24:07

beforehand and you explained that so um

00:24:10

I can't I can't remember the movie

00:24:12

exactly but um it was just it's just

00:24:14

really cool it feels like suddenly

00:24:15

you're out of space and there's a big

00:24:17

glass window there with a bunch of

00:24:18

people like getting ready for this

00:24:19

launch that's happening somewhere else

00:24:20

in the world it just um like I'm I'm

00:24:23

familiar with you and I've you followed

00:24:25

the sueter big junor and what you've

00:24:26

been doing but I probably had really no

00:24:29

idea of the scale of what was going on

00:24:30

here in this Factory in little old New

00:24:32

Zealand well that's littlest Factory in

00:24:34

the whole place is yeah yeah yeah but

00:24:36

you turn into this um into the street in

00:24:38

what's this is it Mount Wellington yeah

00:24:40

you turn into the street in the Suburban

00:24:42

Mount Wellington and suddenly it's just

00:24:43

it's hard to find a park on the street

00:24:46

rocket lab Sho people don't like us

00:24:47

about that yeah we're not very popular

00:24:49

with the neighbors right now oh God I

00:24:50

bet I bet but um yeah what you what are

00:24:54

you as someone that spends a lot of time

00:24:55

in New Zealand and now that's a that's

00:24:57

rocket leue USA it's what it's called

00:24:59

now um but it's a New Zealand company

00:25:01

and you're from inago well we actually

00:25:04

we flipped into being a US company in

00:25:06

2013 when I started to raise Capital out

00:25:08

of Silicon Valley in the states and then

00:25:10

you know New Zealand is a is a subsidary

00:25:12

of the US entity yeah right but you see

00:25:14

this factor and it definitely has the

00:25:15

feel of new coming what what do you

00:25:18

think of the big differences between

00:25:19

like New Zealand and the US I think new

00:25:22

zealanders are much more willing to take

00:25:26

uh risks in in in areas that they don't

00:25:28

know anything about um and I think you

00:25:30

know the old adage um where you know

00:25:32

kiwi has to do everything is is very

00:25:34

very true so if you go around a lot of

00:25:36

our us factories you'll find in a lot of

00:25:38

senior leadership positions there a lot

00:25:39

of kiwis um and uh you know the the

00:25:43

cultures are are different but similar

00:25:45

in in a lot of respects and you know the

00:25:47

cultural elements of just work hard and

00:25:49

and and and make [ __ ] happen and all

00:25:51

that are kind of consistent but I'd say

00:25:53

the one thing that that we we tend to

00:25:55

notice is um is the kiwis tend to be a

00:25:58

little bit maybe it's you know like if

00:26:01

you're if you're a kiwi you know unless

00:26:03

you build your own deck there's there's

00:26:04

something the matter with you and and

00:26:07

you know you have to learn you know you

00:26:08

should know how to concrete and you

00:26:09

should know how to put posts in and you

00:26:11

should know how to deck and and all of

00:26:12

those kinds of things and I think that's

00:26:14

probably one thing in in the New Zealand

00:26:15

culture that's a little bit different to

00:26:17

the US culture is is you know you tend

00:26:19

to have like a concrete expert and a

00:26:21

[ __ ] expert rather than someone who's

00:26:23

willing to just go she'll be right and

00:26:26

and start you know go to High equip and

00:26:27

get a postle driller and just get stuck

00:26:29

into it yeah that sounds like a pro what

00:26:32

about the cons have have you what have

00:26:34

you sort of experienced in the way of

00:26:35

like toall

00:26:36

poppy um yeah to be honest with you so I

00:26:41

don't think T poppy exists with Mom and

00:26:43

Dad at home I think to Poppy only exists

00:26:46

in the media um because you talk to your

00:26:48

average mom and dad at home and they

00:26:51

they want everybody to succeed I

00:26:53

actually only think it's a construct

00:26:55

from um maybe there's a little bit

00:26:56

controversial but that construct of of

00:26:58

New Zealand media um that because they

00:27:01

seem to you know want to cut people down

00:27:04

but I think your average joeblow at home

00:27:07

loves to see people being

00:27:08

successful I love that that's a really

00:27:10

good take I've never thought of it like

00:27:12

that yeah how's your run being with the

00:27:14

media in New

00:27:15

Zealand uh well I mean we don't do much

00:27:19

um uh you know um we we do we do fear

00:27:22

bit of international media but even then

00:27:24

we don't we don't really do much I mean

00:27:26

uh this is only I've done um certainly

00:27:29

in New Zealand but you know not not many

00:27:32

even in in the world so um we don't we

00:27:34

don't we don't do it a ton and I think

00:27:35

that's probably a little bit one of the

00:27:37

the things about rocket lab compared to

00:27:39

some of our competitors is we just sort

00:27:41

of quietly go about getting stuff done

00:27:44

um rather than making a big song and

00:27:46

dance yeah I feel like it's a missed

00:27:48

opportunity for the um potentially the

00:27:50

New Zealand media here I'm not sure if

00:27:51

they've been trying or if it's you know

00:27:52

thanks but no thanks on on your behalf

00:27:54

but yeah like it was astonishing for me

00:27:56

having a look around this Factory and

00:27:58

just seeing what's going on in little on

00:28:00

New Zealand like I I was walking around

00:28:02

your you know your workshop with

00:28:03

goosebumps quite friendly like it's it's

00:28:05

made me really really [ __ ] proud to

00:28:07

be in New Zealander oh awesome it's

00:28:09

great yeah it was so cool and I feel

00:28:10

like it's yeah let's get S Peter B on a

00:28:13

on one of the the dollar

00:28:15

bills no one day no but like what what

00:28:18

you're doing and also the back story

00:28:20

which we'll get to now like being from

00:28:21

um you know the bottom of the [ __ ]

00:28:23

South Island like it's it's simply

00:28:25

remarkable like you you've dreamed big

00:28:27

um you know too big for your school

00:28:29

teachers and you're actually doing it

00:28:30

you're following through and it's it's

00:28:32

the coolest thing you're you're very

00:28:34

very humble about it yeah how does like

00:28:36

praise like this someone pissing in your

00:28:38

pockets that with you it's not yeah no

00:28:40

move on move on please okay all right

00:28:42

early years yeah so um inago earliest

00:28:46

memories oh earliest memories of

00:28:50

inago one of my earliest memories

00:28:52

honestly is um my father took me outside

00:28:55

and it's probably the Catalyst for the

00:28:57

for for my interest in space and I can

00:28:59

remember freezing cold South night but

00:29:01

super clear skies uh standing out there

00:29:04

and him pointing at the stars and and

00:29:06

explaining to me that those stars were

00:29:08

Suns and uh those Suns could have

00:29:10

planets around them and this could be

00:29:12

somebody on one of those planets staring

00:29:14

back and looking at you and um you know

00:29:17

you know when when astronauts go into

00:29:18

space and uh they look down on the earth

00:29:20

they they have this thing called the

00:29:22

overview effect where they see the Earth

00:29:24

for the first time as this fragile

00:29:25

little marble and you know it's a

00:29:26

life-changing experience and and all

00:29:29

that that that was that for me that that

00:29:31

that point for me was like wow yeah

00:29:33

actually that that's that's pretty big

00:29:35

to comprehend and and that that kind of

00:29:37

I guess you know started the started the

00:29:39

fire and um continues to you know kind

00:29:42

of f me as to you know are are other you

00:29:46

know people in in the universe or are we

00:29:48

are we special or are we not just not

00:29:49

that special what sort of

00:29:52

age I don't know um preschool or

00:29:56

probably probably about 5 years old I

00:29:57

think yeah and what do you think is are

00:30:00

there ET around well I mean

00:30:03

statistically um there's the you know

00:30:07

most likely there is intelligent life

00:30:09

but if you want to take the scientific

00:30:10

method until we have actual evidence

00:30:12

then you have to say if you want to be

00:30:14

scientific about it there actually there

00:30:16

is currently no proof of life therefore

00:30:17

there mustn't be any other life in the

00:30:18

universe so uh until we prove that that

00:30:21

either life has existed or it does exist

00:30:23

then um I think you know that's that's

00:30:25

an unanswered question I'm not going to

00:30:27

argue with

00:30:28

you yeah I I I would I would say it's um

00:30:31

it be arrogant of us to assume that you

00:30:33

we're the entire universe but yeah who

00:30:36

knows um yeah so what was the upbringing

00:30:38

like was it it was you your parents Two

00:30:41

Brothers Two Brothers Y how would you

00:30:43

describe yourself like middle class did

00:30:44

you share a bedroom have your own

00:30:45

bedroom yeah I shared a bedroom very

00:30:46

middle class yep yeah my mother was a

00:30:48

school teacher my father was um the

00:30:50

director of the Southern Museum and art

00:30:52

gallery um and uh yeah so know very very

00:30:55

very middle class but um uh but but we

00:30:59

always we you know we always did stuff

00:31:01

um and uh you know I think I think my

00:31:04

father always kind of um you

00:31:07

know sort of did stuff that was at the

00:31:11

time I guess considered unusual um but

00:31:14

uh and that that maybe probably I think

00:31:15

led to the the the feeling that you

00:31:17

could you could do

00:31:18

anything what do you mean unusual well I

00:31:22

mean uh he never went to University um

00:31:24

he was a geologist um and you know he he

00:31:27

he built the Southern Museum he became

00:31:30

uh one of the if not the preeminent

00:31:31

expert in in nefro Jade um and uh and

00:31:35

traveled the world and and and did a

00:31:37

whole whole bunch of kind of you know

00:31:39

amazing stuff yeah was he a sculpture as

00:31:41

well isn't there this like a umbrella

00:31:44

sculpture and SC yeah they they're

00:31:45

scattered all around the country yeah

00:31:47

yeah and your granddad was he was he

00:31:49

mates with Bert Monroe yeah Tru yeah my

00:31:52

my grandfather trale bck so uh yeah he

00:31:54

used to he used to yeah he hate ber

00:31:56

Monroe because he he come to B M jump on

00:31:58

the big motors lath and make a her of a

00:32:00

mess and then walk out and and you know

00:32:02

my grandfather used to chase him out

00:32:04

with a broom because he'd just leave a

00:32:05

mess behind Fu that's a great story that

00:32:08

uh world's fastest Indian with Anthony

00:32:10

Hopkins one of my favorite movies of all

00:32:11

time yeah great movie can you see the

00:32:13

like the parallels between yourself and

00:32:15

um Bert Monroe no Bert was an amazing

00:32:19

guy but but um his his stuff was a

00:32:21

little bit on the Rough Side um I I it

00:32:24

needs to be absolutely perfect for me

00:32:25

I'm afraid uh actually I've got a photo

00:32:28

here contrary to that yeah but look it's

00:32:30

beautifully made it's beautifully made

00:32:32

what is it can you describe what you're

00:32:34

looking at uh that that that's my rocket

00:32:36

bike yeah yeah but look how beautifully

00:32:39

made it is looks like a giant garlic

00:32:41

breed underneath well those are those

00:32:44

are pressure vessels um those are those

00:32:46

are yeah those are those are old oxygen

00:32:48

bottles that I I got from a wer that

00:32:50

were uh condemned um uh that uh yeah

00:32:54

they ended up holding the propellant

00:32:56

yeah so how old were you when you made

00:32:57

that

00:33:02

probably 18 19 something like that and

00:33:04

it went um something like 140 K an hour

00:33:07

and 0 to 105 seconds or something like

00:33:09

that yeah it was a good ride yeah no um

00:33:11

there's nothing like riding a rocket

00:33:12

bike actually like if you've ever ridden

00:33:13

a fast motorbike uh you know the

00:33:15

acceleration is great but it kind of

00:33:17

Peters out as you go faster uh the air

00:33:19

resistance increases and you know you

00:33:22

you you've got to you've got to you have

00:33:23

that moment where you have to change

00:33:24

your gear where there's a slight lapse

00:33:26

and acceleration when you're a rocket

00:33:28

bike um you push the button and because

00:33:30

you're depleting the mass the ma mass is

00:33:32

you know the largest mass of the the the

00:33:34

vehicle is the propellant as you're

00:33:36

depleting the propellant the bike gets

00:33:37

lighter and lighter and lighter and

00:33:38

cancels out the irr resistance in fact

00:33:40

so you when you when you're at the end

00:33:43

of the burn um at the fastest speed

00:33:45

you're feeling the most amount of

00:33:46

acceleration so there's nothing there's

00:33:49

nothing on this world that feels like

00:33:50

that you were you were quite defensive

00:33:53

about that

00:33:54

and sticking up for the workmanship yeah

00:33:59

um and there's there's some other photos

00:34:01

online of you testing it out at like the

00:34:02

Festival of a speed or something um it's

00:34:06

lucky you're alive no no no no no see

00:34:08

you misunderstand um that that that

00:34:11

looks dodgy but but actually um it's not

00:34:14

that dodgy um you know all of that is is

00:34:18

is well well engineered and and you know

00:34:21

I something like that you don't just

00:34:23

throw together and hope for the best

00:34:25

because that that will end in badly so

00:34:28

um so you know Al although it it it it

00:34:31

probably doesn't sound great um it was

00:34:33

you know it was well reasoned and well

00:34:35

engineered so there wasn't you know the

00:34:38

the the the biggest risk with that

00:34:40

actually um the only thing I was really

00:34:42

concerned about that uh was was two

00:34:44

things really is was falling off because

00:34:47

and falling off is fine I was in a

00:34:48

leather you know motorbike leather

00:34:50

that's fine just get along the ground

00:34:51

for a bit um but was worried about

00:34:53

getting burned um because that's not fun

00:34:55

because the you know the exhaust

00:34:56

temperature was

00:34:58

unpleasant um and then uh stopping it

00:35:01

because uh because of those Wheels they

00:35:03

had such high surface speeds um when you

00:35:06

put the brakes on the brakes just melted

00:35:08

so you had to sort of pop up and sit up

00:35:10

for a for you know sort of five or 10

00:35:12

seconds to let the wind resistance slow

00:35:13

you down before you could put the brakes

00:35:15

on that was that was that was a designed

00:35:16

flaw to be fear that was less well

00:35:18

you're owning that owning your [ __ ] good

00:35:21

on you um so you went to um James harest

00:35:24

high school um how what was your school

00:35:26

experience like I love school

00:35:28

yeah not particularly good at it good at

00:35:30

the things that I could apply um so um

00:35:34

you know uh no but but I I would not say

00:35:37

I was that academically strong at all um

00:35:40

but uh but once again I knew what I

00:35:43

wanted to do and and um you know the you

00:35:47

know the mess that was relevant to what

00:35:49

I was doing at the time would be fine

00:35:51

but if it wasn't relevant it I found it

00:35:53

very difficult to to you know make it

00:35:56

work but

00:35:58

yeah what would you like at school like

00:35:59

what would your peers say about you like

00:36:02

I I went to I went to a school called P

00:36:04

boy which is very Sports orientated um

00:36:07

and I look back now and I feel like

00:36:08

everyone was subjected to some sort of

00:36:10

bullying unless you're in like the first

00:36:11

15 or the first first 11 like were you

00:36:14

like did people how do people treat you

00:36:16

for being like different and you know

00:36:18

being like obsessed with the workshop

00:36:19

and surprisingly good for a geek cuz un

00:36:22

shambly UNAM geek no I know no I think

00:36:24

and maybe maybe it it was it was an Vago

00:36:27

thing or James arus I don't know but but

00:36:29

no never never never never had any of

00:36:31

those kind of experiences um and um you

00:36:34

know I think I I could I could make

00:36:36

stuff so um you know I remember at at

00:36:40

intermediate um we had those wooden

00:36:42

desks you may remember these wooden Des

00:36:44

with The Inkwell at at the end and with

00:36:46

the with the lift up lid and the little

00:36:47

little little slot yeah yeah yeah yeah

00:36:50

yep and so you got to sign one of these

00:36:52

desks and um one lunchtime well I was

00:36:55

worked up to it but but one lunch time I

00:36:57

just decided that I would would install

00:36:59

you know a complete alarm system in that

00:37:01

in that disc and so you know wi it up

00:37:03

with all micro switches and and a giant

00:37:05

Bell and and and everything and and and

00:37:07

had a small Optical sensor under the

00:37:09

bottom as well and uh of course this was

00:37:11

great fun because everybody knew that

00:37:12

Peter Beck's desk was alarmed up and you

00:37:15

just you just lift you just lift the lid

00:37:17

like 5 mm and the and the bell go ring

00:37:19

like that and then you just dro the lid

00:37:20

and the teachers like what's going on

00:37:22

here so that lasted for like you know

00:37:24

quite some weeks before they figured out

00:37:26

that this you know this this disc was

00:37:27

was all alarmed up but no I mean why did

00:37:30

you do that was was someone stealing

00:37:31

your stuff no it was just

00:37:34

cool were you just like um like I don't

00:37:37

know destined to be like an inventor or

00:37:39

something yeah I mean I think I think

00:37:41

throughout throughout our family uh

00:37:45

everybody's always making stuff whether

00:37:46

it's my father or my brothers we're

00:37:47

always just just making stuff um so um

00:37:51

and uh yeah yeah so I think I think it

00:37:55

was just natural yeah so

00:37:57

yes so so your dream then was to like to

00:38:00

basically start start rocket lab or what

00:38:02

is now no my my my dream was to go and

00:38:03

work for NASA

00:38:06

right you can see you can see why your

00:38:08

teachers wanted to oh no actually you

00:38:10

probably can't I was going to say you

00:38:11

can see why your teachers wanted to

00:38:13

manage your expectations because they

00:38:14

probably thought the likely of

00:38:16

likelihood of it was very slim um and

00:38:18

the disappointment it's going to be a

00:38:19

steep drop off can you sort of see from

00:38:22

their perspective no I think that's

00:38:24

criminal no I mean it's not a teacher's

00:38:26

job to crush people dreams it's a

00:38:28

teacher's job to encourage

00:38:30

them but you you did go to the states

00:38:33

yep and then basically no one no one was

00:38:35

interested in like a kiwi walking up

00:38:37

well I mean look we've we've missed like

00:38:39

decades there but but ultimately yes I

00:38:41

did go to the States on a rocket

00:38:43

pilgrimage and I went and visited all of

00:38:45

the places that I'd been corresponding

00:38:47

with or or dreamed to work with and it

00:38:49

was a super interesting time um and uh

00:38:52

you know I I turned up at like uh rocket

00:38:55

dine which is you know a large was the

00:38:57

preminent rocket engine manufacturer and

00:39:00

uh just naive as anything and you know I

00:39:02

turned up there and started taking

00:39:04

photos of of their facilities and walked

00:39:06

up in the reception taken photos in the

00:39:08

reception and and you know an actual

00:39:10

camera yeah yeah yeah yeah and and

00:39:12

they're like there security guards

00:39:13

everywhere and I got escorted out of

00:39:15

that place um they didn't you know cuz I

00:39:17

started asking to to talk to to rocket

00:39:19

scientists and and what whatnot and um

00:39:23

you know I went out to Edwards Air Force

00:39:24

Base uh and um same thing again you know

00:39:27

Edwards Air Force Base is Hell ground

00:39:29

for for a rocket guy um and you know big

00:39:33

security you know entrance at the front

00:39:35

and and it's funny I've got actually got

00:39:36

a picture I only got one picture off um

00:39:39

of the Edwards Air Force you know base

00:39:41

logo and it's all on the piss it's all

00:39:42

on the angle um because at that very

00:39:44

time I had my arm grabbed by a soldier

00:39:46

with a gun uh inquiring why I was taking

00:39:49

photos of this military base but um just

00:39:52

just so so naive and um but anyway yeah

00:39:56

I did I did go NASA and I I got you know

00:39:59

tour of JPL facility and and uh it was

00:40:02

it was super depressing it was really

00:40:04

really depressing um because this

00:40:07

organization that I I dreamed of working

00:40:09

for and and I thought NASA was like it

00:40:11

was in the polo era you know bunch of

00:40:13

young Engineers running around doing the

00:40:15

most amazing things and by the time I

00:40:17

got to NASA um the average age was 52

00:40:20

and everybody just talking about stuff

00:40:22

that they used to do um and it just

00:40:24

completely lost its way um you know

00:40:26

space shutle was starting to look like

00:40:27

it was retiring and it was all it was

00:40:29

all just just really Grim so so you yeah

00:40:34

we'll look back around to the inago

00:40:35

stuff but so you would you left America

00:40:37

sort of disillusion and that's when you

00:40:39

decided to start up your yeah that was

00:40:40

the the the impetus of starting it is is

00:40:42

I sat on the plane and I also learned um

00:40:45

I learned a couple of other things so I

00:40:47

went to the Mojave Desert which uh in

00:40:49

the Mojave Desert there's a whole bunch

00:40:51

of Rocket Little Rock up rocket startup

00:40:52

companies and I went there and I

00:40:55

remember going there and um went to this

00:40:57

one company and uh super cool guys and

00:41:02

they showed me their torch igniter that

00:41:04

they very proud of this torch igniter

00:41:05

for a rocket engine that the US

00:41:07

government had funded them through

00:41:09

various funding it's called and it was

00:41:11

like a million dollars of funding and

00:41:13

which at that time was just the most

00:41:14

insane amount of money I've never heard

00:41:15

of so much money and uh this for this

00:41:18

torch igniter and they bought it out to

00:41:19

me to show me and it was it was this

00:41:22

janky machined thing screwed to a piece

00:41:24

of plywood I'm like this is a million

00:41:27

worth of Rocket work this is insane I

00:41:30

can build a way you know my torch

00:41:31

igniters look way better than this and I

00:41:34

got talking to these guys and you know

00:41:36

they were having the same combustion

00:41:37

inst stability issues as I was having

00:41:39

with my engines and then like everything

00:41:41

everything was the same and so I kind of

00:41:43

realized look I I I had this impression

00:41:46

that that I was at this level and

00:41:48

everybody else was way way up at this

00:41:50

level and um I realized that that wasn't

00:41:54

the case the levels weren't hugely

00:41:56

dispar the the levels were actually

00:41:58

pretty similar for for for where I was

00:42:00

at to a lot of what of these these these

00:42:02

startup companies were doing right so

00:42:03

like an aathy in the best sort of way

00:42:05

yeah yeah but uh to counter that um uh

00:42:09

nobody nobody in America is going to

00:42:12

employ a kiwi that comes from a country

00:42:14

with no space industry that has no

00:42:17

degree and no experience in in the space

00:42:19

industry um you know to work in the

00:42:21

space industry in America uh it's it's a

00:42:24

dual use um it's called a dual use class

00:42:26

so B basically uh you you you have to

00:42:29

you have to be a US citizen you can't

00:42:31

you can't turn up there unless you get a

00:42:33

a green card or a dsp5 or you you're a

00:42:35

US citizen so for so just the regulatory

00:42:38

hurdle to get in there is is enormous so

00:42:41

in order for that a company would need

00:42:43

to sponsor you in um there is no chance

00:42:46

that a company is sponsoring in a guy

00:42:48

with no degree from New Zealand to go

00:42:50

and work on Rockets um so you know that

00:42:53

that was there was that was Zero

00:42:56

opportunity to to go and go and do that

00:42:58

how' we then early 20s yeah early 20s

00:43:01

yeah yeah yeah so were you um like

00:43:04

depressed for a while yeah a little bit

00:43:07

so I remember getting I remember you

00:43:09

know we we we basically um finished up

00:43:11

at at JPL I think the next day we got on

00:43:13

the plane or might even that night got

00:43:14

on the plane uh back from LA to New

00:43:16

Zealand and there's you know there's

00:43:17

nothing like 12 hours of of plane flight

00:43:20

to to reevaluate your life and um yeah

00:43:24

you know it was it was a little bit

00:43:26

disappointing and then um then I just

00:43:29

did the only thing you could logically

00:43:30

do and it just just lay out logically

00:43:33

okay if I'm going to work in the space

00:43:35

industry what what are the Avenues and I

00:43:38

just just went down the Avenues and it's

00:43:39

like well the only logical solution here

00:43:41

is to start my own company and and do it

00:43:43

from New Zealand uh that that that's the

00:43:45

only outcome here so scri a little logo

00:43:48

called it rocket lab and I I actually

00:43:50

put Lab at the end because not very

00:43:52

imaginative names it's kind of like New

00:43:54

Zealand how we name our Rivers like

00:43:55

River One River two you know same thing

00:43:58

um I was doing rocket so it should have

00:43:59

rocket in it and I was worried about you

00:44:02

know being legitimate um or at least

00:44:05

looking real so if I put laboratory

00:44:07

after the end that looks that looks kind

00:44:08

of you know legitimate so that's where

00:44:10

the name rocket lab came

00:44:13

from you look back R to viago then we'll

00:44:16

get back to this because it's a

00:44:17

fascinating story because I I feel like

00:44:18

that's the point most people would have

00:44:19

given up and I think this is what sets

00:44:21

you apart from most people you know

00:44:23

nothing's in the too hard basket for you

00:44:26

um yeah so your mom in she's still in in

00:44:29

viago yep yep yeah is she still teaching

00:44:31

or is she retired no no she's retired

00:44:33

yeah she's she's old what what age did

00:44:35

she teach like Primary School

00:44:37

Intermediate yeah High School yeah High

00:44:39

School y yeah so you think she should be

00:44:41

the sensible one in the family the one

00:44:43

that would sort of go okay Peter well

00:44:45

let's just you know get an education in

00:44:48

case sensible in the fact that um she

00:44:50

was she's always the one that telling us

00:44:52

to be careful um uh but but not sensible

00:44:56

in the fact that you should have high

00:44:59

aspirations was she did she go to

00:45:01

government house with you for the the

00:45:03

Knighthood thing she did yeah yeah that

00:45:04

was that was it was great yeah yeah yeah

00:45:07

well I feel like you you you seem fairly

00:45:10

like indifferent about this but I feel

00:45:12

like for like um like an aging mother

00:45:14

this is this is huge yeah well I mean it

00:45:18

it it was it was it was yeah it was it

00:45:20

was good and and then um you know for me

00:45:22

personally it it was it was it was it

00:45:24

was actually quite special because um

00:45:28

like you know my father had a long

00:45:29

battle with cancer like like a lot of

00:45:31

people unfortunately do and uh he he was

00:45:34

a real battler and um he he said he

00:45:36

wasn't going to die until I got to orbit

00:45:39

and you know we reached orbit in 2018

00:45:41

and 10 days after we reached orbit he

00:45:43

died so it's amazing what the human body

00:45:45

will do when when when it when you know

00:45:48

you have a goal and you can and you can

00:45:49

work to it but um I remember you know I

00:45:52

I was I was tasked with um you know

00:45:55

talking to him about the kind of final

00:45:57

preparations and um you know Dad what

00:46:01

what sort of Tombstone do you want this

00:46:03

is not a great conversation to have to

00:46:04

be fear and I'm like oh how about a

00:46:07

giant stainless steel monolith and he's

00:46:09

like no no no I want I want this piece

00:46:10

of gabro and you know this this piece of

00:46:14

gabro uh is is a is a Precision surface

00:46:17

table so he is the only person on this

00:46:19

planet I think that has a tombstone that

00:46:21

is optically flat within two wavelengths

00:46:23

of light um but that and but that was

00:46:25

cool and and you know I didn't want to

00:46:28

leave on that that note I didn't want to

00:46:31

you know walk out of the room uh and and

00:46:34

you know leave on that so I was figuring

00:46:35

trying to think of of something you know

00:46:37

inspiring or nice to say uh for the end

00:46:39

of the day um and that day someone had

00:46:42

sent me uh an email saying a what what

00:46:46

you what you achieved with the you know

00:46:47

first rocket out of the Southern

00:46:49

Hemisphere and getting to Orit was

00:46:50

amazing I'm going to nominate you for a

00:46:52

Knighthood and so I said to Dad I said

00:46:54

oh look this this person you know said

00:46:57

uh said he's going to nominate me for a

00:46:58

Knighthood and you know he was he was

00:47:01

pretty out of it by then and and he

00:47:03

looked up and and he said oh that's just

00:47:05

great and um so it was you know it was

00:47:08

it was it was it was special to to close

00:47:10

that

00:47:11

off yeah was that your last conversation

00:47:14

with him it

00:47:17

was yeah so he was um 76 y when he died

00:47:21

in 2018 so he was around to see you um

00:47:23

get the Kiwi Bank New Zealand of the

00:47:25

year in 201 what did he make of

00:47:28

that those those sorts of things my

00:47:30

father was very much about service I

00:47:32

mean he he got an OB himself um he's

00:47:34

very much about about service not those

00:47:38

so so those kind of awards you know

00:47:40

they're not you know we didn't really

00:47:42

talk about those those kinds of things I

00:47:44

think and and look some of those things

00:47:48

uh you know I don't want to diminish any

00:47:50

of those those awards that just sounds

00:47:52

arrogant but um you know some of those

00:47:54

things they they they they you you know

00:47:57

you you you do a good thing and they

00:47:59

just everybody just piles on wants to

00:48:00

give you all these things and and I've

00:48:02

always maintained like you know there's

00:48:04

a lot of people that do amazing things

00:48:06

um in this country so you know one award

00:48:09

should be your lot and then you know

00:48:11

everyone should focus off on doing other

00:48:13

stuff geez you're almost annoyingly

00:48:16

humble aren't you like you're so um

00:48:19

lowkey about like what you've done and

00:48:20

what you're doing and um these these

00:48:22

accolades as a result of it um it's it's

00:48:25

refreshing

00:48:27

well it just is what yeah yes this just

00:48:31

how you erased your thing so you your

00:48:34

brothers as well I'm guessing they're

00:48:36

immensely proud of you but they're just

00:48:37

like oh yeah yeah it's just just Peter

00:48:39

being Peter oh yeah yeah no yep there's

00:48:42

no there's no room for for big kids in

00:48:45

family yeah no everybody everybody

00:48:47

brings make sure everybody's on an even

00:48:49

K so do do you get to um catch up much

00:48:52

now yeah as as often as often as we can

00:48:54

so uh you know we we'll get down to

00:48:56

Central ago you know as often as we can

00:48:58

and and um um so and and you know they

00:49:01

still live in in Vago so know and my

00:49:03

wife's parents live into to needen so

00:49:05

Central atago is kind of the collection

00:49:07

point of all the families yeah um yeah

00:49:10

how old are you now what are you 48 4 47

00:49:13

47 yeah yeah no I'm I'm 51 and no no one

00:49:17

gets to sort of our age of Life the perk

00:49:19

of reaching middle age without going

00:49:20

through some sort of adversity you know

00:49:22

life life just kicks you in the ass a

00:49:24

couple of times um what about you losing

00:49:26

your dad is that your biggest adversity

00:49:28

or what else has there been uh well I

00:49:30

I'd say I'm tremendously lucky um I you

00:49:33

know I look at I look at you know a lot

00:49:35

of my friends and and and other people

00:49:36

and they've had to deal with a whole

00:49:38

much whole way worse stuff than than I

00:49:40

have to um have had to today and um yeah

00:49:44

yeah of course you know losing losing a

00:49:46

parent is always a is always a difficult

00:49:48

thing but um I don't know it just it

00:49:51

maybe you become desensitized it feels

00:49:53

it does feel like a fire hose a [ __ ]

00:49:55

100% of the time um and and you ask any

00:49:58

founder running a company that's that is

00:49:59

that is the reality of a running running

00:50:01

a company there's there's there's never

00:50:03

never plain sailing but no I think I

00:50:05

I've I've been tremendously lucky I mean

00:50:07

compared to what other people have had

00:50:08

to had to endure yeah okay so um so you

00:50:12

finished school at James harest why no

00:50:14

University what was the there was a plan

00:50:16

no the plan was to go to university um

00:50:18

but I wanted to build rockets and there

00:50:20

was no courses at University to you know

00:50:24

no Aerospace degree um and uh to me uh

00:50:27

the best Engineers um not all this is

00:50:30

this is gross generalization but but the

00:50:32

best Engineers are Engineers that can

00:50:34

design it and then go down to the

00:50:36

workshop and build it um because you you

00:50:38

get the get that you know what's

00:50:39

practical to build and then and then you

00:50:41

know what's also practical to to design

00:50:44

so uh so I went off to Fisher and P and

00:50:46

did a tool and die making which was the

00:50:48

most precise engineering that I could do

00:50:50

within the country um and uh if you

00:50:53

wanted to build rocket engines then

00:50:54

that's that is a skill that that that

00:50:56

you needed so the plan was always to go

00:50:58

to university but I just wanted to get a

00:51:00

trade under my belt before I went

00:51:02

there yeah so you um you leave home at

00:51:05

17 and move to denan did you did you

00:51:07

have any friends or like a network in

00:51:09

denan no no

00:51:12

no even that's a big call that's that's

00:51:15

a big move at 17 you're very young at 17

00:51:17

it didn't feel like it honestly didn't

00:51:18

feel like it so you yeah so you've got

00:51:20

this job at Fisher and P um I believe I

00:51:23

might have this wrong but you um you

00:51:24

move into a two-bedroom flat you're in

00:51:27

one bedroom the other bedroom is like a

00:51:28

like a home Workshop no well so so for

00:51:32

the first year or so I moved in with a

00:51:33

family um and you know that that was

00:51:35

Mom's way of making sure I ate um

00:51:38

because uh one of one of the challenges

00:51:40

as I would just go down to the workshop

00:51:41

at school and and and just never eat um

00:51:44

if you look at photos of me when I'm

00:51:46

young um I'm emaciated uh it's because

00:51:49

everything else you know eating is is

00:51:51

just is just a you know an unfortunate

00:51:54

thing you have to do to like a

00:51:55

distraction a total distraction you

00:51:58

should eat space food hydrated meals or

00:52:00

whatever it's not a bad idea but um but

00:52:03

you know she just just slide the plate

00:52:04

under the workshop door and you know I

00:52:06

trip over it on the way to bed and and

00:52:09

uh so so she she put me with his family

00:52:11

so so I didn't die basically and um it's

00:52:14

it's one of the reasons why I'm married

00:52:16

to my wife is because she was worried

00:52:17

was going to die too she used to cook

00:52:19

meals for me like the at Fisher and P

00:52:21

everybody used to worry that that that I

00:52:23

would you know for my health so they

00:52:26

would would invite me around and cook me

00:52:27

deal cook me meals and things like that

00:52:29

but um uh what were we talking about oh

00:52:33

just yeah talking about you um this must

00:52:35

have been further down the track I must

00:52:37

have got the timeline wrong but you're

00:52:38

living in a flat oh yeah no so I bought

00:52:39

a house yeah so anyway I bought a house

00:52:41

did you what age oh it's been 19 or

00:52:45

something like that sh that's impressive

00:52:47

on its time wasn't a good house to be

00:52:50

come on no no but you know you maybe

00:52:52

it's cuz you weren't having smashed EV

00:52:53

on toast every every week

00:52:56

so you bought a house well just just cuz

00:52:58

you weren't much of a spender you had

00:52:59

this job at Fisher and P yeah no I why I

00:53:01

spend everything everything on on on on

00:53:03

Rockets but um but but yeah I managed to

00:53:05

to to save enough to to to buy this

00:53:08

little little house in Mornington and

00:53:10

and um and yeah that that um yeah that

00:53:13

the rooms got converted like had one

00:53:15

drawing room was just designated for for

00:53:17

drawing and one room that was just

00:53:18

designated uh you know as as a workshop

00:53:21

and then had a little garden shed out

00:53:23

the back that was was actually a

00:53:25

hydrogen peroxide um distiller uh so I

00:53:28

could distill the propellants

00:53:31

out I can see now why you had to buy

00:53:33

your own place like no land you failed

00:53:36

the first flight inspection no I can

00:53:38

remember it was it was so uh uh I I got

00:53:42

visited by a census lady and it was the

00:53:44

most inopportune time to be visited by a

00:53:46

census lady because I I was out outside

00:53:50

up my driveway with this garden shed and

00:53:52

these days like it would look like a

00:53:54

peacook facility because it was was a

00:53:56

garden shed it had compressors in it and

00:53:58

it had a a bubble reactor column in

00:54:00

there to distill out the hydrogen

00:54:02

peroxide to you know to propulsion grade

00:54:04

and this thing just ran 24/7 with lights

00:54:06

on and and sounds and hissing and all

00:54:08

the rest of it and uh I was doing I was

00:54:11

doing a a change um because you you sort

00:54:14

of distill only see Safety First only

00:54:16

distilled sort of 200 milliliters at a

00:54:18

time in case it went bad um because the

00:54:20

explosive radius wasn't you know big

00:54:22

enough to take out my house basically

00:54:24

but um so but I was I was right in the

00:54:27

middle of a swap over and um I couldn't

00:54:30

afford uh the proper PVC suits because

00:54:33

if you get hydrogen peroxide on you is

00:54:35

organic uh it just com instantly

00:54:38

combusts so if I tipped it on this the

00:54:39

shirt you know the shirt would just

00:54:41

start on fire So you you're supposed to

00:54:43

use these PVC suits so I fashioned

00:54:46

myself a PVC suit out of rubbish bags

00:54:48

You Know M multi-layer thick rubbish

00:54:50

bags and the census lady come up the

00:54:52

driveway and I'm in this black rubbish

00:54:54

bag PVC suit

00:54:57

with a welding Alon literally you know

00:54:59

holding this Beaker of of of 98% proof

00:55:02

hydrogen

00:55:04

peroxide yeah so how how are you not

00:55:07

dead but I know I mean it was it was

00:55:09

perfect it it always sounds dodgier than

00:55:12

it than it was but I mean it was it was

00:55:14

all you know it was all perfectly safe

00:55:16

like You' like you think about that in

00:55:19

in a laboratory environment it's not

00:55:20

it's no different you know I you know

00:55:23

the the the suit is is was perfectly

00:55:26

impervious and and so no it was it

00:55:28

wasn't wasn't as bad as it sounds yeah

00:55:31

you're definitely a hyper fixator aren't

00:55:32

you probably yeah yeah which is you know

00:55:36

it could could be your superpower

00:55:38

definitely yeah yeah yeah y

00:55:41

um yeah that's amazing what an amazing

00:55:43

story so was so then you worked in New

00:55:45

Plymouth for a while on boats or

00:55:46

something how what's your Recollections

00:55:48

of that time yeah so I was a project

00:55:50

engineer uh for for building a 123 ft um

00:55:53

super yacht um and uh that was you know

00:55:57

at the time I didn't really enjoy it um

00:56:00

but I look back and now and realize that

00:56:02

was just such a uh you know an important

00:56:06

part of shaping me because um you know

00:56:09

in the morning I would have to um you

00:56:11

know work down with some you know the

00:56:13

welders who were you know some of them

00:56:15

were completely illiterate and you know

00:56:16

explained to them uh you know all the

00:56:18

weld details and and and what we needed

00:56:20

and and and all the rest of it um and

00:56:23

then in the afternoon um you know I'm

00:56:25

I'm sh with the owner of the that's

00:56:28

flowing in on the on the helicopter uh

00:56:30

and and being able to having to be able

00:56:33

to kind of you know um operate in in

00:56:35

those two worlds is is is I think was

00:56:38

was really really informative and uh and

00:56:41

and I think you know that that's my my

00:56:44

life now I mean you know have to operate

00:56:47

in in a whole bunch of different spheres

00:56:48

whether it be political spheres or um

00:56:51

you know uh raising money or or you know

00:56:54

public company stuff um

00:56:56

it's you know right right down to you

00:56:58

know swinging a wrench on an engine so

00:57:00

having having having the ability to kind

00:57:03

of translate across all of those those

00:57:04

kind of people and disciplines is is is

00:57:07

super important yeah I watched a ton of

00:57:09

stuff that you've about you on YouTube

00:57:11

and um you're one of the early clipes

00:57:12

you with Paul Henry on breakfast TV in

00:57:14

2009 um and then you see the progression

00:57:17

of Sir Sir Peter back through the years

00:57:19

and you you speak you're definitely a

00:57:21

lot more comfortable now um I think with

00:57:23

that public facing stuff not that you

00:57:25

weren't then but I suppose it just comes

00:57:26

with maturity and experience and not

00:57:29

really I I do not enjoy it do you not

00:57:32

absolutely not no no but I I can see why

00:57:34

you you'd managed to win over rooms of

00:57:36

like your venture capitalist or or

00:57:38

whoever else because it's um you're I

00:57:42

don't know you you you're so determined

00:57:43

and so fixated on what you're doing and

00:57:45

it's um it's quite

00:57:47

intoxicating people people I think a lot

00:57:49

of the times people are probably buying

00:57:50

into you in your vision I don't know

00:57:53

what this guy just said but he believes

00:57:55

that well no I mean look uh you know

00:57:57

especially raising Capital out of uh

00:57:59

venture capital is um is is you you have

00:58:01

to be a good Storyteller um and uh uh

00:58:05

you can't you can't just just go up

00:58:07

there and and present a thesis um you

00:58:09

have to you have to be a good

00:58:09

Storyteller and and lay out the and and

00:58:12

and and to still very complicated things

00:58:14

into into into very consumable things

00:58:17

that people can can can understand and

00:58:19

and and get behind for sure yeah but I

00:58:21

suspect that's part of the like a

00:58:23

necessary evil for the job for you

00:58:24

something that doesn't necessarily come

00:58:25

natur you'd rather just be in the

00:58:27

workshop you know tinkering but you

00:58:29

understand don't get me wrong I love the

00:58:31

thrill of a Chase of a deal um so so

00:58:33

there there's there's definitely that

00:58:34

side of it I love I love the thrill of a

00:58:36

Chase and and um you know business is is

00:58:39

a lot like a game of chess and um you

00:58:41

know you'll spend a long time

00:58:43

positioning pieces that uh that that may

00:58:46

be completely useless and and in the

00:58:47

form of like you I've had thousands upon

00:58:50

thousands of meetings that I've walked

00:58:51

out thinking man that was a waste of

00:58:53

time and then it's the one time you know

00:58:56

where you you're you're you might be at

00:58:58

a you know at a customer and they go oh

00:59:00

yeah I I remember I met Pete 10 years

00:59:02

ago and we were talking about this and

00:59:04

all of a sudden that meeting is really

00:59:06

really

00:59:07

important yes so rocket lab so so you

00:59:09

launch it and then what does the how

00:59:11

long is it before you meet um Mark

00:59:13

rocket yes so I started the company and

00:59:15

then uh then then you know obviously I

00:59:18

needed to you know to find uh some some

00:59:21

backing for it and I heard mark on the

00:59:23

radio he just changed his name uh to

00:59:25

mark rocket and done very well out of

00:59:27

out of his internet businesses and I

00:59:29

thought well here's an interesting thing

00:59:31

uh has some money check um and is

00:59:33

passionate about space check so uh so I

00:59:36

got managed to find Mark and got a hold

00:59:38

of him and gave him a ring and he came

00:59:39

and visited and and then that was you

00:59:41

know that that provided the first bit of

00:59:42

funding to to start the company yeah so

00:59:45

how much did you get from him a couple

00:59:46

hundred thousand or something yeah and

00:59:47

it's for half the company yeah yeah yeah

00:59:49

yeah worst deal ever well no that's not

00:59:52

true best best deal ever because that's

00:59:54

what started the company but uh you know

00:59:56

if if anybody like if if if you're

00:59:58

trying to build a company like that is

01:00:00

the that is commercial suicide to sell

01:00:02

your company in the a round for 50% of

01:00:05

your company it's like you went on Shark

01:00:06

Tank and got re yeah yeah yeah yeah but

01:00:09

but but if it wasn't for Mark um none of

01:00:12

this would have happened because he was

01:00:13

the first person to put some money in

01:00:14

and and and you know all credit to Mark

01:00:17

ultimately uh you know I bought mark

01:00:19

back out and um that that that that was

01:00:23

that was critical because you can't turn

01:00:25

up to Silicon

01:00:26

with half your company sold like um you

01:00:29

know and this this is one of the things

01:00:30

that that you know early New New Zealand

01:00:32

Venture Capital just make huge amount of

01:00:34

mistake on is is I think that the

01:00:36

riskier the company the more they need

01:00:37

to own and uh that's how you destroy a

01:00:40

company yeah so so how long was he in

01:00:42

the company for before you bought him

01:00:43

back out a few years yeah few years did

01:00:45

he do well out of the deal I think he

01:00:47

did very well yeah

01:00:48

yeah I don't think you have any

01:00:50

complaints from him there yeah yeah did

01:00:52

he keep any stock on the company yeah

01:00:53

yeah yeah yeah he's still in yeah yeah

01:00:56

well I don't know if he's if he's still

01:00:57

still holding out as a public company

01:00:59

but um right but uh yeah yeah you're

01:01:02

very different day like say he he was

01:01:04

one of these these was he on one of the

01:01:06

first virgin trips to space yeah he

01:01:08

signed up to go on one yeah yeah yeah

01:01:10

yeah so did he go well no virgin hasn't

01:01:12

oh right okay um yeah so yeah so he he

01:01:16

wanted to go into space you from what I

01:01:18

can understand about you you've got no

01:01:20

interest in going to space no the

01:01:21

challenge is that uh I understand all

01:01:23

the engineering extremely well so I have

01:01:25

all of the knowledge know and none of

01:01:26

the courage and I think you know an

01:01:28

astronaut is is an incredible person

01:01:30

because they can climb aboard something

01:01:33

and they have a good knowledge of what's

01:01:34

going on and just turn that off um I I

01:01:37

just wouldn't have the ability to climb

01:01:38

on board that and just turn that turn

01:01:40

turn that off what about eventually if

01:01:42

that say 20 years from now if that's

01:01:43

where if that's where you know the

01:01:46

rocket lab goes or the industry goes

01:01:48

Never Say Never um but I mean uh look

01:01:52

Rockets have not changed since the 1950s

01:01:54

they're still you know they've improved

01:01:56

but they're still fundamentally you know

01:01:58

one you sort of 3% to 5% of the total

01:02:02

mass of the rocket is the thing you get

01:02:03

into orbit it's 92% fuel there's no way

01:02:06

to make 92% fuel completely

01:02:09

[Music]

01:02:10

safe okay so um yeah I've mentioned this

01:02:14

a couple of times the um yeah the Paul

01:02:16

Henry interview uh in 2009 at 32 years

01:02:19

old um when was the last time have you

01:02:21

ever gone back and watched that or no no

01:02:24

no he kind of he kind of like I don't

01:02:26

know I got the feeling he was sort of

01:02:27

like um didn't believe you necessarily

01:02:30

or was like it's like it's that's why I

01:02:32

bet him no of course he didn't believe

01:02:33

me yeah that's why I made the bit but he

01:02:35

starts by saying oh you look very young

01:02:37

and you're like thank you and your

01:02:39

answer catches him off guard you can

01:02:41

tell that he's sort of thinking like

01:02:42

with a bit of side eye like the

01:02:43

producers have organized the guy and the

01:02:45

guy is not going to amount to anything I

01:02:47

I don't know I'm I'm yeah that's

01:02:49

definitely what he thought he's a huge

01:02:50

fan of yours now but what what bit did

01:02:52

you make I think we bit uh we bet $20

01:02:55

that

01:02:56

um I can't remember as I wouldn't get to

01:02:58

the moon or I wouldn't get to orbit or

01:03:01

or or or something like that and and the

01:03:03

BET was that um that if he lost he had

01:03:06

to dress up in a bunny suit um so he

01:03:10

dressed up in a bunny suit to full

01:03:11

credit to Paul yeah oh that's amazing um

01:03:15

yeah are you friends you've caught up

01:03:16

with him in Palm Springs yeah yeah yeah

01:03:17

yeah yeah I mean I haven't seen Paul for

01:03:19

a long time but uh you know he's he's a

01:03:20

great guy and what are your

01:03:22

Recollections of that first launch in

01:03:24

2009 15 years AO going now the first

01:03:27

suborbital launch yeah can you remember

01:03:29

can you remember your um your quote like

01:03:31

this oh yeah oh well which there's a few

01:03:34

I don't know which quote there there

01:03:36

kind of Infamous ones and and and less

01:03:38

Infamous ones but um but yeah no it was

01:03:41

there was uh yeah it was it was it was a

01:03:44

it was it was a big day for sure because

01:03:46

we had we had no money that was that was

01:03:48

it um and you know there's been a number

01:03:50

of times throughout the company's

01:03:52

history where it's all on the table and

01:03:54

you know that was the first time so yeah

01:03:56

when you say by the way the quote I'm

01:03:58

talking about is you [ __ ] Beauty yeah

01:04:00

I know it's the most um like like raw

01:04:02

and honest and unfiltered thing had you

01:04:05

not thought about the significance of

01:04:06

the moment and what you should say it

01:04:08

was no it's right right up there with um

01:04:11

we KN the bastard off from Ser manery

01:04:13

yeah no like you you are like for for

01:04:16

two years is is just uh you you know it

01:04:19

was just 247 and just just work to get

01:04:22

to that point so no it's it's it's

01:04:25

engineering execution it's not there's

01:04:27

no time for that that kind of nonsense

01:04:29

and and when for that kind of nonsense

01:04:32

when you say and when you say it's all

01:04:33

on the all on the line like what do you

01:04:35

mean so if it failed if that blew up on

01:04:38

the pad we had no resources to have have

01:04:39

another crack uh if it if it didn't if

01:04:41

it didn't fly well we had no resources

01:04:44

and um uh you know that that launch um

01:04:47

straight after that launch I got on a

01:04:49

plane and went to America and um and you

01:04:52

know that that that was a you know that

01:04:54

was the time to to to make hay that was

01:04:56

the time to turn something into into

01:04:59

something else and you know following

01:05:00

that um you know I went and and we we

01:05:03

kind of ran the company's a little kind

01:05:04

of advanced technology house we did work

01:05:06

for uh US Government research houses

01:05:09

locked Martin and we built like this

01:05:11

little Skunk Works of of doing crazy

01:05:13

difficult things um and then achieving

01:05:15

them and and ultimately that that kind

01:05:18

of led to the point where I thought

01:05:20

right it's time I've got enough

01:05:21

credibility and enough capability to go

01:05:23

and build an orbital rocket um and and

01:05:25

that's when I went to Silicon

01:05:27

Valley did you yeah like I don't know if

01:05:32

this is something you even thought about

01:05:33

then but from 2009 like if you could if

01:05:36

you could imagine yourself 15 years into

01:05:38

the future like what did you imagine

01:05:39

could you have imagined what you know we

01:05:41

you're at now well I mean I I think

01:05:44

we're behind schedule to be honest with

01:05:45

you um so um uh you know everything

01:05:49

everything expect you expect everything

01:05:50

to go way faster than than than it did

01:05:53

um you know we we we the first bit of

01:05:55

money hit the bank for electron uh in

01:05:58

2014 January 2014 and we had our first

01:06:01

flight in 2017 now I was run around

01:06:03

telling telling everybody we're going to

01:06:04

have our first flight in 2015 um and you

01:06:07

know how naive it was then but um but

01:06:10

but uh you know the the I guess that you

01:06:13

know the timeline is always always feels

01:06:15

longer than it than it should be but

01:06:17

it's you know part naivity and I think

01:06:19

part part optimism and part in patience

01:06:22

absolutely yeah yeah you just wanted

01:06:24

done that yeah there are parallels like

01:06:26

with you with you and Elon like in this

01:06:28

this book I was telling you about that I

01:06:29

listened to I think it was him U making

01:06:31

a public statement about how many

01:06:33

teasers they were going to roll off the

01:06:34

production line in the next five years

01:06:35

or whatever and it was some outlandish

01:06:37

figure and his point of view was that

01:06:39

well if if if if we don't make it at

01:06:40

least you know to push the team to get

01:06:42

as close to that as possible i' like to

01:06:44

set a sort of I think mine was pure

01:06:46

naivity to be honest

01:06:48

with um yeah that's this this is

01:06:51

fascinating stuff thank you so much for

01:06:53

being so generous with your time today

01:06:54

it's really cool I got some

01:06:55

miscellaneous questions here so um the

01:06:57

the building launch in 2018 um you had

01:07:00

William Shatner over yeah it was super

01:07:01

cool yeah yeah how did that come about

01:07:03

well I saw he is in town um oh was he

01:07:05

coincidentally in town he was

01:07:07

coincidentally in town and and um uh

01:07:10

well we heard he was coming to town to

01:07:11

to do to do a show and they were

01:07:13

starting to advertise for it and and uh

01:07:16

my EA Christie I remember going into

01:07:17

work the morning said Christie I know

01:07:19

who's going to open the building it's

01:07:20

got to be William Shatner and um and all

01:07:23

credit to her she just just made that

01:07:25

happen and and he is such a nice guy uh

01:07:27

such a such a a generous guy and um uh

01:07:31

actually take a few life lessons from

01:07:33

him is is one day he was on he having a

01:07:35

few tough times and one day he just

01:07:37

decided he's going to say yes to

01:07:38

everything and he just lives his life

01:07:40

saying yes so when we rang him up and

01:07:41

said hey can you open this rocket

01:07:43

building he's like yes and you know we

01:07:45

took him we took him around the factory

01:07:47

and uh he uh he he stole an ethernet

01:07:51

cable um around the Factory and then

01:07:54

when he when he went to open the

01:07:55

building he did this great comedy gig

01:07:57

where he said oh I was just looking at

01:07:59

your rockets and and he pulled this wire

01:08:01

out from his sleeve it was just an

01:08:02

ethernet cable that he grabbed off

01:08:03

someone's desk and said I pulled this

01:08:04

out of the rocket does anybody mind it's

01:08:07

just it's an incredible guy oh that's

01:08:09

great that's so and and he's um I find

01:08:12

him inspiring because he's so old but

01:08:14

still so vibrant oh yeah yeah like he's

01:08:16

so sharp and so active so much going on

01:08:19

oh um so Trump's recently been reelected

01:08:22

and um him and Elon mus and incredibly

01:08:25

tight um yeah what sort of impact do you

01:08:28

think this will have on on Rocket lab or

01:08:31

yourself or space exploration in general

01:08:33

well I mean under the new Administration

01:08:35

uh space is clearly a priority so that's

01:08:38

great for us um what's also a priority

01:08:40

is um you know uh a very commercial

01:08:43

approach to space like space is is kind

01:08:45

of bisected into the old the old kind of

01:08:48

dinosaurs who do Cost Plus Contracting

01:08:50

and then the new space uh folks like you

01:08:52

know Space X and ourselves that do firm

01:08:54

fix price and and so um so under under

01:08:57

the kind of new Administration firstly

01:08:59

space has a great priority and also uh

01:09:01

you know that way of working has a great

01:09:02

priority so these are these are great

01:09:04

things for us yeah um and you're ke to

01:09:06

explore Venus absolutely yeah so elon's

01:09:09

elon's he's what's the planet he's marss

01:09:12

yeah so why is he to Mars you're into

01:09:15

Venus well uh for very very different

01:09:17

reasons um so you know I mentioned it

01:09:20

you know before that that that you know

01:09:22

my father took me outside to to look at

01:09:24

the stars and um pose that question is

01:09:27

is the life and um you that that's sort

01:09:30

of that's that's remained in my head

01:09:32

it's like well um we really need to

01:09:34

answer that question are we the only

01:09:35

life in the universe or not and uh in v

01:09:39

in Venus has a set of clouds and at 50

01:09:41

km altitude in in the Venetian clouds

01:09:44

there's there's a very interesting

01:09:45

atmospheric layer um it's kind of it's

01:09:48

kind of O It's kind of okay I mean it's

01:09:50

still rockus but it's okay um there's

01:09:52

there's enough kind of an environmental

01:09:54

conditions at that 50 km altitude that

01:09:56

life could theoretically uh survive and

01:10:00

uh very famous uh friend and scientist

01:10:02

um Sarah Sega uh she made the discovery

01:10:05

of of phosphine gas um in in that

01:10:07

particular croud Cloud region and the

01:10:10

only known uh the only known way to make

01:10:12

phosphine gas is is through um through

01:10:15

through organic symbiosis so um it's

01:10:18

it's like a a sign of Life uh so armed

01:10:21

with that um we put a we stitched a plan

01:10:25

together to to build this probe to go to

01:10:27

Venus and it's like a go noo gauge for

01:10:31

life and we get about about 200 seconds

01:10:34

to to you know Transit through this

01:10:36

atmospheric cloud and and measure uh me

01:10:39

measure whether or not um we can we can

01:10:41

we can find life or not so uh incredibly

01:10:45

difficult thing to do um it's the only

01:10:46

private mission to another planet um

01:10:48

ever uh it's a nights and weekends thing

01:10:51

so you know it's constantly delayed but

01:10:53

we're having with 2026 where is is the

01:10:56

date that we we we have you know Venus

01:10:58

and Earth are aligned enough that we

01:10:59

think we can have a crack and um we'll

01:11:02

have a crack at answering that question

01:11:03

and I think if you can answer that

01:11:05

question two things happen like if if if

01:11:07

you don't find life then um then I think

01:11:09

you know we continue on thinking that

01:11:11

actually well maybe you know life is is

01:11:13

not that prolific Through the Universe

01:11:15

um if we find life there then you've

01:11:17

answered the question we are not the

01:11:19

only life in the universe moreover if

01:11:21

you find it in the Clouds of Venus

01:11:23

chances are it's prolific throughout the

01:11:25

universe and and I think that's a

01:11:27

question worth

01:11:28

answering how far away is Venus a long

01:11:31

way takes about uh at the at the

01:11:35

shortest Transit um can't remember the

01:11:37

exact time it takes about a year and a

01:11:38

half to get there at the shortest

01:11:42

Transit wow you wouldn't want to do then

01:11:45

economy

01:11:47

economy wouldn't be raw dogging that

01:11:49

flight well the the crazy thing is that

01:11:51

the the the hardest part of that mission

01:11:53

is is the probe interface with the

01:11:55

atmosphere course the probe heats up

01:11:57

because it's inter fading with an

01:11:57

atmosphere and during that sort of 200

01:11:59

seconds um you know we we have 12 Watts

01:12:02

worth of radio power amplifier that has

01:12:05

to make its way all the way back to a

01:12:07

dish here on Earth that and receive the

01:12:09

signal that's that's that's non-trivial

01:12:13

that what about the um the the original

01:12:16

moonlanding in 1969 with um uh Neil

01:12:19

Armstrong Buzz Aldren yeah yeah yeah did

01:12:22

they go or is it a fil oh come on come

01:12:24

on

01:12:26

so it seems you see the footage it just

01:12:28

seems very film City so any anybody who

01:12:30

has a doubt with that I always say go to

01:12:32

Cape Canal and stand under a satin five

01:12:34

rocket and then look at the hundreds of

01:12:36

thousands of Engineers and scientists

01:12:38

and uh you know if you can fool hundreds

01:12:40

of thousands of the smartest people you

01:12:42

know that lived at the time and arguably

01:12:44

ever lived um then then then you know

01:12:47

that that's some kind of cover up um

01:12:49

because you can't you know you can't you

01:12:51

can't hide that stuff oh going by that

01:12:54

answer I'm I'm take it you curved

01:12:55

earther as well very much a

01:12:58

curved yeah we live on a a spherical

01:13:01

planet for sure and some of the um yeah

01:13:03

some of the footage I've seen from your

01:13:04

launches and stuff the um the footage is

01:13:07

just exceptional isn't it when when when

01:13:09

the launch first goes off what's all the

01:13:10

debris and stuff that's flying

01:13:12

everywhere water it's just water um so

01:13:15

uh so we spray the the the the launch P

01:13:18

pad and mount with um with with

01:13:20

thousands of liters of water um and we

01:13:22

have to do that because the the acoustic

01:13:24

reflection or the noise from the rocket

01:13:26

engine is so loud that it it would

01:13:28

rupture the rocket like the noise

01:13:30

pressure would break the rocket in half

01:13:32

so the the water that we spray on the

01:13:33

pad um you know Deens all the sound and

01:13:37

all um all the Rockets you've done have

01:13:38

all been um they've all been like

01:13:41

beautiful they've all been like

01:13:42

aesthetically really really

01:13:44

nice is everything is everything to do

01:13:47

with performance or does Aesthetics come

01:13:48

into it oh well the one and the same for

01:13:51

me absolutely the one and the same um

01:13:53

there used to be a saying up in the wall

01:13:55

uh in headquarters in America they may

01:13:56

me take it down because apparently it's

01:13:58

not polite to say crap in America but um

01:14:01

then the saying on the wall said um you

01:14:03

know make everything a work of art um

01:14:05

because you know if it looks like crap

01:14:07

and doesn't work you have nothing um at

01:14:09

least if it looks good it looks good

01:14:11

right um so uh you know you can walk

01:14:13

into a rocket lab facility whether it's

01:14:15

a boardroom table or a rocket or a

01:14:16

spacecraft and everything is beautiful

01:14:18

and everything is beautifully made and I

01:14:20

think that's that's super important

01:14:22

because um there is no room for error in

01:14:24

this industry there is just none so the

01:14:27

moment you start cutting a corner um

01:14:29

you're you're for sure going to end in

01:14:31

Failure yeah um yeah you say there's no

01:14:34

room for failure and and um honestly

01:14:36

hand on heart even though um the share

01:14:40

price at the time for Rocket La was was

01:14:41

um very very high there' just been a

01:14:42

recent Spike when I went and had a look

01:14:44

at the factory last week and met some of

01:14:46

your team and saw the work they were

01:14:47

doing um I went and put some more money

01:14:50

in at the what was potentially an

01:14:52

overinflated price that night because

01:14:53

I've just got so much more like belief

01:14:55

in what and what you're doing and the

01:14:57

people you've got there like I've never

01:14:58

seen I don't know like a workplace where

01:15:01

people are so happy I get the feeling um

01:15:03

there's a lot of people there that

01:15:04

aren't too concerned with work life

01:15:06

balance they're happy to be there off

01:15:08

the clock yes they're they're it's like

01:15:11

you cannot do amazing things 8 to5 that

01:15:14

is a fact um and uh there is a lot of

01:15:17

dysfunctional Workaholics at at Rocket

01:15:19

lab and if you look at our nearest

01:15:22

competitor being Space X um same so you

01:15:26

cannot be competitive if if you want to

01:15:28

just have a cruzy life um and and not

01:15:31

not strive for for big things and you

01:15:33

like you you cannot do amazing things in

01:15:35

normal business house that is a fact

01:15:38

yeah and generally like um I mean you're

01:15:40

you're the founder and the CEO and the

01:15:42

chairman of the board but for for anyone

01:15:43

else like if you want to get further in

01:15:45

your career whatever it happens to be

01:15:46

whether it's um rocket lab or something

01:15:48

else um you get out what you put in 100%

01:15:51

100% you you can make up for a lot with

01:15:54

just hard work um and you know as we

01:15:56

looking to employ people um you know uh

01:15:59

we we we naturally get the the most

01:16:01

wonderful CVS but the people that that

01:16:04

end up actually being employed in the

01:16:05

company are not necessarily the people

01:16:07

with the multiple phds and a grades

01:16:10

they're the people that demonstrate

01:16:11

passion and the people that demonstrate

01:16:13

that they will go that extra mile

01:16:14

because that's what it takes so um you

01:16:16

know the best CVS um you know all all

01:16:19

the qualifications look the same and

01:16:20

just flip that page what I really look

01:16:22

for is like what are you do in your

01:16:23

spare time what is what is the project

01:16:25

that you've undertaken what is the thing

01:16:27

that you've really stretched to achieve

01:16:28

whether it be you know engineering or

01:16:30

sporting or whatever CU those those are

01:16:32

the those are the people you

01:16:33

want and say if um some you wide-eyed

01:16:38

naive kid like you were when you went to

01:16:39

the states um you know came and knocked

01:16:41

on the front door of Rocket lab um with

01:16:44

a yeah headful of Dreams whatever um

01:16:47

yeah what would you

01:16:49

do well I mean it depends on what what

01:16:52

what their dream was um like if you know

01:16:55

it's it's one one thing to just knock on

01:16:56

the door and say I've got a dream but um

01:16:59

and that that's great um but you know

01:17:01

there's been people that turn up at

01:17:02

Rocket lab um you know they they've

01:17:04

built complete rockets and they just

01:17:05

turn up with a rocket um CVS made all

01:17:07

out of carbon fiber um I had we had one

01:17:10

guy that who came from Canada hired a

01:17:13

car parked it in the car park and didn't

01:17:15

leave he just stayed there he say not

01:17:18

going back to Canada until he gets a job

01:17:20

and what happened we gave him a

01:17:22

job how long was he there for oh not

01:17:25

long yeah but I mean that's that's the

01:17:28

kind of person you want because because

01:17:30

you like you can teach you can teach

01:17:32

mths you can teach a lot of things you

01:17:35

have to transpant a BL transpant

01:17:37

someone's brain to have that level of

01:17:39

motivation do you think some of it is

01:17:41

people I don't know you you you might

01:17:43

not be to answer this this might be a

01:17:44

question for someone else but do you

01:17:45

think some of it as people just buying

01:17:46

into your

01:17:48

vision uh well I think I think it's

01:17:50

important um uh you know to have good

01:17:52

leadership in in a company for sure

01:17:55

um and you know as you walked in the in

01:17:57

the facility the first thing you would

01:17:58

have read is that we go to space to

01:17:59

improve life on Earth and um that means

01:18:02

different things to different people if

01:18:04

you're working on the Mars team um that

01:18:06

means going to Mars um if if you're

01:18:08

working on on electron production floor

01:18:10

that means you know enabling a customer

01:18:12

to get to orbit to do the amazing things

01:18:13

that they're doing so it means it means

01:18:15

different things to different people and

01:18:16

I think um every every company has to

01:18:19

have you know a vision to or in an

01:18:22

anchor on because um you know

01:18:25

like great there was a whole bunch of

01:18:27

happy people there but man they have

01:18:29

[ __ ] days too real [ __ ] days and I

01:18:31

always say to everybody that when you

01:18:33

have a [ __ ] day um go down to the

01:18:36

factory and and look at what you're

01:18:38

building and look at the amazing things

01:18:40

you you're you're working on you go and

01:18:42

stroke the rocket you know appropriately

01:18:44

don't stroke it inappropriately but but

01:18:47

go and just just remember that that's

01:18:48

going to space and that's got your DNA

01:18:50

on it and the amount of people that can

01:18:52

put their DNA on a rocket that goes to

01:18:54

space is extremely small on this planet

01:18:57

so you get to do the most amazing things

01:19:00

yeah I get the feeling you're um your

01:19:03

your love for space and what you do has

01:19:05

has not wavered at all like I'm thinking

01:19:06

about my um my career like when I was

01:19:08

when I was a kid at school I really

01:19:10

wanted to get into into radio I love the

01:19:12

idea of being on the radio and I managed

01:19:13

to do that well you're still here so

01:19:15

yours hasn't either yeah yeah yeah yeah

01:19:18

yeah it's a different thing now but when

01:19:19

I started in radio it was like I'd do

01:19:20

this for nothing like I'm working in the

01:19:22

middle of the night I don't [ __ ] care

01:19:24

I just just love it and I'd spend

01:19:25

weekends there tinkering around in the

01:19:27

production Suite then it gets to the

01:19:28

point you've been doing it a while and

01:19:30

you know there's no way I'd work on a

01:19:31

weekend unless I was you know whatever

01:19:33

but I feel like you're you kept From a

01:19:35

Different Cloth it's like I say it's

01:19:38

it's it's all in and and um uh you know

01:19:41

when when you when you set your mind to

01:19:42

something it is it's it's all

01:19:46

in that's intoxicating mate hey um one

01:19:49

thing I'd like to ask all my guests

01:19:50

about is um yeah some crunchy questions

01:19:52

about mental health and things so um

01:19:55

how's your mental health how are you

01:19:56

today how are you mostly uh I I I

01:20:00

wouldn't have a clue to be honest with

01:20:01

you um uh well I mean

01:20:05

so what I what I've learned is is I I

01:20:09

have to find uh a a a some kind of

01:20:13

switch off release because you know it

01:20:15

is it I'm I'm once I fixate on something

01:20:17

it it definitely fixate on something um

01:20:20

so um so you know I I have to force

01:20:24

myself to do things that enable me not

01:20:26

to think about rocket lab so that's why

01:20:29

I started to learn to fly a helicopter

01:20:30

and got my helicopter's pilot's license

01:20:32

because you cannot sit in a helicopter

01:20:34

and be thinking about rocket engine ISP

01:20:36

because you will die so have to have to

01:20:39

find myself doing things where it's it's

01:20:41

kind of forced shut off um and um

01:20:44

whether it's whether it's that or flying

01:20:45

a jet or or or those kinds of things

01:20:47

that's that that that that is that is

01:20:49

what I think is it keeps keeps my mental

01:20:52

health sane is is trying to making sure

01:20:54

I enforce but there a same problem

01:20:57

before is like then then those things

01:21:00

start to get out of control as well you

01:21:02

know gold mining so I always love gold

01:21:04

mining and started off with with a gold

01:21:07

pan and and great for the family and we

01:21:08

just puddle away in a river and then

01:21:11

well there a better way to do this we

01:21:11

get a gold slle box and get a gold slle

01:21:13

box and then um then well there's got to

01:21:16

be a better way to do this get a

01:21:17

detector we get a detector well actually

01:21:19

now I need a gold claim so I need one

01:21:21

gold claim I have to have two gold

01:21:22

claims now I've got diggers in a trml so

01:21:25

it can't it it it starts to get you know

01:21:28

you have to have to find things that

01:21:30

that that switch you off but even those

01:21:31

things you know start to start to get

01:21:33

carried away so whatever you do you want

01:21:36

to do as well as what can be done it

01:21:38

seems to be that way y I've learned that

01:21:40

over time what what other Hobbies

01:21:42

helicopters gold panning yeah that's

01:21:45

that that's that's pretty pretty pretty

01:21:46

much it I mean car racing as well do a

01:21:48

little bit of that um so but um but yeah

01:21:52

are you able to watch like television or

01:21:54

movie no no no it's a standing joke

01:21:57

amongst my entire executive team is is

01:21:59

is is I a social [ __ ] so there is

01:22:02

there is like any movie or any book or

01:22:05

anything is just completely lost on me

01:22:07

to the point that it's it's it's it's

01:22:08

like you know taking taking the piss out

01:22:10

of Pete um as an executive team because

01:22:13

someone someone will mention a movie you

01:22:15

seen that movie Pete ah Pete's never

01:22:16

seen that movie so no no not even what

01:22:19

about growing up like were you obsessed

01:22:20

with like Star Wars or just in the

01:22:22

workshop 100% of the time yeah yep

01:22:26

um what about when you're doing family

01:22:28

stuff so if you if you're if you're

01:22:29

involved with um you know the wife and

01:22:31

kids are you like are you able to go

01:22:33

okay I'm going to be fully present for

01:22:35

the next you know hour two hours however

01:22:36

long it is well you'd have to ask I feel

01:22:38

like I'm very present you'd have to ask

01:22:39

you'd have to ask ask them but I mean

01:22:41

you know all credit to my wife and she

01:22:42

she'll she'll you know the way the way

01:22:45

our holidays work is is Pete needs to go

01:22:47

to the UK for for some meetings so you

01:22:50

know that gets turned into a family

01:22:51

holiday and I'll go and have meetings

01:22:53

and and then you know I I'll find myself

01:22:55

at stonehinge um and then oh it's good

01:22:58

with stone Hing this is quite good and

01:23:00

um that that's the way it's not me

01:23:01

organizing the trip stonehinge like it's

01:23:04

it's it's very much uh you

01:23:06

know I'm I'm I'm lead yeah so you're at

01:23:09

stonehinge but you're think you're

01:23:10

thinking I've got I've got [ __ ] I want

01:23:13

to do but I said I think they probably

01:23:15

got a photo of me on the phone at St If

01:23:16

we're

01:23:17

[Laughter]

01:23:19

honest yeah are

01:23:22

you can can the company be bigger than

01:23:25

you like if you ever decide oh no this

01:23:28

super critical um and one one of the

01:23:30

reasons why um I I selfish reason I I

01:23:34

would decided to take the company public

01:23:37

um was because you know uh you talk to

01:23:40

talk to Jeff and and and Elon and um

01:23:43

it's very very clear that that you know

01:23:46

when when they depart the planet is is

01:23:48

that going to continue and I was

01:23:50

terrified that look you know the one as

01:23:52

I mentioned before the one thing that my

01:23:54

parents said to me is make sure you have

01:23:55

the biggest impact you can have and um

01:23:58

the way to have the biggest impact is is

01:24:00

to have longevity and you're only on

01:24:02

this planet for a short period of time

01:24:04

so whatever you create if you want to

01:24:05

have you know big impact you have to

01:24:07

create it for a long time so um I always

01:24:10

worry that um that that you know if I

01:24:12

die would rocket lab stop and that

01:24:14

simply cannot be true um I've completely

01:24:17

failed if that's the case so one of the

01:24:19

reasons to go public was that really

01:24:21

enforces that generational thinking

01:24:23

building a multigenerational space

01:24:24

company building a profitable company

01:24:26

that is enduring it really is forced

01:24:29

discipline and um in the space industry

01:24:32

that that's sorely lacking I mean you

01:24:34

look at the space industry there's

01:24:35

tremendous amount of failure uh in in

01:24:38

the industry and that's because you know

01:24:39

a lot of people you know get get

01:24:41

enamored with technology or you know

01:24:43

before that before actually getting

01:24:44

enamored with building a business that

01:24:45

works so so for me um uh AB absolutely

01:24:50

so I think you know the company is the

01:24:53

company is in in grow great shape um for

01:24:55

sure and only get better yeah but you're

01:24:58

the the founder the CEO the chairman of

01:25:00

the board like can can you step back or

01:25:03

is there just no one that can at this

01:25:04

point do any any other job as good as

01:25:06

what you can truth be know there's

01:25:08

probably people that can do it better

01:25:09

than me um but uh but but no I think you

01:25:12

know at this point we're at a critical

01:25:14

point in the company's history um you

01:25:16

know there's a couple of really big

01:25:17

Milestones that we need to take over

01:25:19

that that will that will be huge for the

01:25:20

company and um and you know look the

01:25:24

reality is you're going to have to take

01:25:25

me out on the box um you know I'm going

01:25:26

to die at my desk probably that's that's

01:25:28

that's the reality but um or or somebody

01:25:31

convinces me I'm no longer useful but um

01:25:33

but uh but but yeah I mean making sure

01:25:36

that the company out survives me is is

01:25:38

has always been a priority and you

01:25:40

mentioned Jeff before just in

01:25:41

conversation um Jeff Bezos um yeah like

01:25:45

what's your relationship with him well I

01:25:47

mean have you caught up you have like C

01:25:50

all the all the all the rocket guys um

01:25:52

you know there's a mutual respect right

01:25:54

it's it is extraordinarily hard to go to

01:25:57

orbit uh it's extraordinarily hard cubed

01:26:00

to do it over and over again so uh yeah

01:26:03

so although you know they competitors

01:26:06

there is just uh an incredible sense of

01:26:09

of um of kind of you know respect mutual

01:26:13

respect among amongst everybody and um

01:26:17

uh you know and I'm sure um you know if

01:26:19

anything if anything needed to be done

01:26:22

between either of us we would all help

01:26:23

each other out um so so so no I think

01:26:27

you know there's it is it is you there's

01:26:29

a lot of mutual respect amongst

01:26:31

everybody I mean I think Jeff and Elon

01:26:33

don't get on but there's there's still I

01:26:35

would say a guarantee there's a lot of a

01:26:36

lot of respect between the two yeah for

01:26:38

sure yeah a lot of um um employees from

01:26:41

the early days of Amazon say um the the

01:26:45

criticism of Jeff is that um apparently

01:26:48

he he had very little time for anyone

01:26:49

that um didn't wasn't on on his level of

01:26:52

intelligence or higher if if St um were

01:26:54

to pick on your worst flaw what do you

01:26:56

think that'd

01:26:57

say oh Jeepers um I I would I would I'm

01:27:01

probably too intense um I micromanage um

01:27:04

I get down into the details um and um

01:27:07

you know I think I think those those

01:27:09

will be th those will be some negative

01:27:11

traits

01:27:13

um yeah for sure how how are you with um

01:27:17

vulnerability um one thing I've got from

01:27:19

doing a lot of these podcasts is um the

01:27:20

importance of um you know guys in

01:27:23

particular I think um to be able to be

01:27:24

open and vulnerable and talk about stuff

01:27:26

that's on their mind have like if you

01:27:28

got like an inner circle of like close

01:27:30

friends that you talk to or your wife or

01:27:32

are you you're a botler I'm 100% a

01:27:34

botler this is a very unpleasant thing

01:27:36

we're doing now no no no and and a

01:27:39

conscious decision like I I never talk

01:27:40

about uh work at home because like you

01:27:46

you don't need to share that that like

01:27:48

that especially the bad stuff you don't

01:27:49

to share that that just bringing

01:27:51

everybody down um so so no I when when I

01:27:54

go home I you know to use your War I try

01:27:56

and be as present as I can and we're not

01:27:58

I'm not talking about rocket Lab at all

01:28:00

in fact it's it's a constant frustration

01:28:02

because my mother will ring me up and

01:28:04

she just wants to talk about rocket lab

01:28:05

and I always have to correct her it's

01:28:06

like Mom we're not talking about rocket

01:28:08

lab how often does how often do you

01:28:10

speak oh every week every week yeah yeah

01:28:13

yeah well she's just so proud though

01:28:14

right yeah but but we can be proud about

01:28:16

talk about other

01:28:20

things what what um what frustrates you

01:28:23

hey by the way thanks for being so open

01:28:24

about these like you you said just

01:28:26

before it's uncomfortable for you to

01:28:27

talk about but you you wouldn't know

01:28:28

like you're very you're very Frank and

01:28:30

forthright oh good illusion yeah what

01:28:34

frustrates you uh frustrates me um look

01:28:39

I I've I have a sense of urgency so when

01:28:42

when you know when when things are too

01:28:44

slow uh everything well everything is a

01:28:46

little bit slow but when things are just

01:28:47

very very too slow that that that's

01:28:49

incredibly frustrating uh just bad

01:28:51

decisions or indecision you know much

01:28:54

rather someone make the wrong decision

01:28:55

than not make a decision at all so you

01:28:57

know people just mucking around and and

01:28:59

and not making decisions and um uh you

01:29:02

know people that don't work hard um you

01:29:05

know uh you think you made the point you

01:29:07

get in what you you put out and and you

01:29:09

know the people that that you know put

01:29:11

in the least um were always the people

01:29:13

that moan they get the least out yeah

01:29:16

well this is um yeah this is something

01:29:18

Elon said when he took over x uh Twitter

01:29:20

that became X um it was very seen as

01:29:23

very controversial at the time but he

01:29:25

was like I I want people here that want

01:29:26

to you know be here early in the morning

01:29:28

and be here late at night I don't want

01:29:29

anyone working from home and it was seen

01:29:31

as like a controversial statement but

01:29:32

it's like yeah like if if you want the

01:29:35

best out of your own life you have to

01:29:36

work hard at whatever you do and that's

01:29:38

um well point to any company that has

01:29:41

been incredibly successful like you know

01:29:44

you know a company that goes down in

01:29:46

history that's worked 8 to five and I

01:29:48

don't know I can't name a single

01:29:50

one so if if anyone at Rocket lab is um

01:29:54

fixated on the work life balance thing

01:29:56

um do they sort of get like naturally

01:29:58

you know chewed up out Philly we we're

01:30:00

very upfront and very very upfront with

01:30:02

everybody that this is if you're looking

01:30:04

for a work life balance and you want to

01:30:05

cruise this is not the place for you and

01:30:08

the reality is that we did the

01:30:09

statistics and it's twice as easy to get

01:30:10

into Harvard than it is to get into

01:30:12

rocket lab so the bar is extraordinarily

01:30:15

High and um and yeah I mean the you're

01:30:18

not going to be successful in the

01:30:20

company if if you if you just want to

01:30:21

turn up and do your thing and go home

01:30:24

but likewise the flip side to that is if

01:30:26

you have drive and you have U

01:30:28

motivation you you can do anything I

01:30:30

mean uh one of the guys uh we hired a

01:30:33

guy young guy and he mowed the Lawns at

01:30:36

the launch site that was his job he said

01:30:38

I want to job at Rock La mow The Lawns

01:30:39

at launch site so he M the laun at the

01:30:41

launch site and he's great guy and then

01:30:43

uh he got promoted and he would do the

01:30:45

the weather balloon releases and then uh

01:30:47

then he got in charge of logistics and

01:30:49

and and um and then he started taking on

01:30:52

more responsibilities on the launch pad

01:30:53

and so on and so forth that guy runs an

01:30:55

entire facility in uh in in Baltimore a

01:30:58

new one of our new factories um young

01:31:00

kiwi guy um so the flip side to that is

01:31:03

is that if you're hungry and you're

01:31:05

passionate

01:31:07

um you know you climb as high as you

01:31:10

want like the opportunities for

01:31:12

everywhere that's inspiring how yeah how

01:31:14

how much time of the year are you in the

01:31:16

US about half the year right

01:31:20

yep it's it's full on isn't it yeah yeah

01:31:23

it's full on

01:31:24

yeah it's it's like it's a lot of flying

01:31:26

the flying must drive you crazy do you

01:31:29

manage to like have um work that you can

01:31:31

get done on the flight yeah yeah yeah

01:31:33

yeah um although in New Zealand does a

01:31:35

great great job um and you know those

01:31:38

those nighttime flights you have a nice

01:31:39

meal and a wine and and then you know

01:31:41

try and get a get a few hours sleep and

01:31:42

you wake up in the morning good to go so

01:31:44

um so so so you know that's that that

01:31:46

works pretty well yeah are you a drinker

01:31:49

you have a wine with your meal I have a

01:31:51

wine with a meal but that's that's I'm

01:31:53

super lightweight so that that is that's

01:31:55

about my life yeah so do you do you have

01:31:56

any

01:31:58

advices um you're not even a coffee guy

01:32:00

you were telling me before like no just

01:32:02

makes me sick makes me I love this I

01:32:03

love the smell of it I love the taste of

01:32:05

it makes unfortunately makes me sick no

01:32:06

I think I think my my vices are that um

01:32:09

I just I just get hyperfocused and and

01:32:12

um and and would just just won't stop um

01:32:15

it's probably probably the worst thing

01:32:17

is and I'm sure if you asked my wife she

01:32:19

she'd comment on on Plenty of things but

01:32:22

um but uh but yeah yeah what would she

01:32:25

what would she she say your best and

01:32:27

worst habits

01:32:29

are uh Jeepers um well

01:32:33

uh I think I probably mansplain way way

01:32:37

way too much but the stuff that you're

01:32:38

mansplaining you need to well no but

01:32:41

it's stuff that I don't need to

01:32:42

mansplain you know about the symmetry of

01:32:45

the spoons in the drawer and how they

01:32:46

should be all symmetrical that doesn't

01:32:48

that that probably probably doesn't need

01:32:50

explaining and I I have to check myself

01:32:52

because I know that upsets everybody and

01:32:54

I I have to pull away because otherwise

01:32:56

you know I'll just I'll just drive

01:32:58

everybody insane do you notice things

01:33:00

like that so taals have to be on the

01:33:01

rail evenly oh absolutely everything has

01:33:04

to be straight and neat absolutely yeah

01:33:06

yeah yeah yeah what about your kids'

01:33:07

bedrooms is you just let oh you used to

01:33:09

walk away walk away um what about regret

01:33:13

any

01:33:14

regrets oh look there's plenty but I

01:33:17

I've I'm always Avo the view of of to

01:33:19

look forward not back and um your

01:33:21

biggest mistakes and some of your

01:33:23

biggest regrets um I think are the are

01:33:25

the most influ influential on on your

01:33:28

future decisions and who you are as a

01:33:29

person um and uh you know hu you made

01:33:33

bunch of silly mistakes and bunch of

01:33:36

silly regrets but I think um but I think

01:33:39

ultimately I think that that's only bad

01:33:41

if you just if you just don't log them

01:33:43

if you log them in in your brain then I

01:33:45

think you know it's all good but as long

01:33:48

as you can log them then um then then

01:33:51

don't really have any regrets that's a

01:33:53

great answer yeah mistakes should be

01:33:54

seen as like a stepping stone to success

01:33:57

otherwise it's like you were saying

01:33:58

before they never feel like that but I

01:33:59

mean no at the time it sucks yeah yeah

01:34:02

yeah yeah but but um yeah but but

01:34:05

sometimes you need to make what is seems

01:34:06

to be a big mistake at the time to avoid

01:34:09

a much much bigger mistake in the future

01:34:11

and where do you see yourself at say 55

01:34:13

or 60 years old still at Rocket lab

01:34:16

obviously but that's a long time um you

01:34:20

know we joke at Rocket labor like dog

01:34:22

years right one year here um it just

01:34:25

just seems Seems a crazy amount of time

01:34:27

um so so you know we got a lot lot left

01:34:31

to do at at the company and and you know

01:34:33

we' got a lot of big projects and stuff

01:34:35

to do and as as we saying before it

01:34:37

always seems like the next big thing is

01:34:39

bigger than the next and you know we

01:34:40

keep keep running towards it but I think

01:34:42

the definition of success for for me is

01:34:45

is is like when it's time to clock out

01:34:48

is is you know reflect back and and like

01:34:51

did you really do everything you could

01:34:53

to have the amount of impact that's

01:34:54

that's how I measure everything against

01:34:56

against that pretty

01:34:57

[Music]

01:34:59

much yeah what about

01:35:02

Legacy well I think your legacy is is is

01:35:04

your impact I mean there's yeah that

01:35:07

that's that that that that that's the

01:35:09

only way you achieve immortality is

01:35:11

actually you know achieving something

01:35:13

for the planet and and and you know

01:35:15

everybody on it that's yeah that's

01:35:18

nobody nobody remembers anything

01:35:20

else mate this has been super inspiring

01:35:23

yeah how's it been for you oh unpleasant

01:35:26

unpleasant unpleasant is it why so well

01:35:30

I mean uh I I I I you know I'm the

01:35:34

Rockets rockets in in in rocket lab you

01:35:38

know that's the priority and and um you

01:35:41

know nobody enjoys talking about you

01:35:43

know themselves for sure you'd be

01:35:44

surprised some people do um so it's been

01:35:47

okay it's an unpleasant experience

01:35:49

that's um it's it's not the go nothing

01:35:51

to do with you though I was going to say

01:35:53

that's not the goal I have for for my

01:35:55

guests yeah I'd like them to have an

01:35:56

enjoyable experience but Pleasant is a

01:35:59

bit harsh were you unfort oh no no no no

01:36:01

no it's interest it's a fascinating

01:36:02

insight into you as a person but um you

01:36:04

I got the feeling when I cornered you at

01:36:06

this gallery and asked you to come on

01:36:07

the podcast that you know you were

01:36:08

reluctant to do so but you you kindly

01:36:10

did do so it's been bloody great um why

01:36:14

did yeah why didn't you just weasle your

01:36:15

way out of it you could have like told

01:36:17

me to message Morgan and I could have

01:36:19

messaged Morgan and then it could have

01:36:20

you know just just fizzled out then well

01:36:23

I mean part of parting of being being a

01:36:25

good leader is to really trust your

01:36:26

people and um you know Morgan does a

01:36:29

great job she told me to go on here so

01:36:31

I'm

01:36:33

here he does listen to some people Hey

01:36:36

sir Peter Beck you're a great New

01:36:38

Zealander um mate this has been an an

01:36:40

absolute dream scenario for me and um

01:36:43

even more so after having the look

01:36:45

around um the rocket lab establishment

01:36:47

last week um it's incredible what you're

01:36:48

doing and um yeah I just cannot wait to

01:36:51

see what you and your team at Rocket

01:36:53

League do in the future oh thanks very

01:36:55

much that's very kind and and you know I

01:36:56

think uh it it is a team right like um

01:36:59

massive team massive team and and you

01:37:01

know people look back at Rocket lab and

01:37:03

and you know it's like the 17 18 year

01:37:05

overnight success but if I look back

01:37:07

through through the history of the

01:37:09

company and all the things that needed

01:37:10

to go right and all the rest of it um

01:37:13

there is like there is so many hundreds

01:37:15

probably thousands of people that that

01:37:17

helped along the way that that kind of

01:37:20

believed in in me or believed in the

01:37:21

company that that things just just just

01:37:23

wouldn't have happened you know whether

01:37:25

it's you know Michael Fay letting me use

01:37:26

his Island to launch a rocket from or um

01:37:29

you know NASA awarding us um a contract

01:37:33

uh for for you know you know first ever

01:37:36

well third turned out to be third flight

01:37:38

of our electron rocket you know they

01:37:40

they took them even that organization

01:37:42

government organization took a huge bit

01:37:44

on on a on a little company down in New

01:37:46

Zealand so you know it it it it is it is

01:37:49

a big team and a lot of people that end

01:37:51

up creating these successes m I honestly

01:37:54

believe that those examples like s

01:37:55

Michael Fay and great Mercury Island and

01:37:57

NASA and everything else it's um people

01:37:59

buying into your vision because um yeah

01:38:01

you're very

01:38:03

intoxicating

01:38:05

okay no you I I don't know a lot of what

01:38:08

you've said today but I believe every

01:38:10

word of it Hey sir Peter Beck thank you

01:38:12

so much thanks Dom appreciate it

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Episode Highlights

Type Three Fun Explained
Peter Bick shares his concept of 'type three fun' and its implications.
“Type three fun is like it absolutely sucks the whole time.”
@ 04m 34s
February 02, 2025
Impact Over Wealth
Peter Bick emphasizes the importance of making an impact rather than focusing on wealth.
“Have the most amount of impact you can have with your life.”
@ 09m 36s
February 02, 2025
The Year of Preparation
A typical launch takes about a year of meticulous planning and coordination.
“A typical launch is one year in the making.”
@ 18m 51s
February 02, 2025
Pride in the Work
Rocket Lab employees wear their merch proudly, reflecting their passion and pride.
“Everybody's super proud of the company and they should be.”
@ 21m 46s
February 02, 2025
Naive Beginnings
Peter recounts his naive attempts to engage with the American space industry.
“I turned up there and started taking photos of their facilities.”
@ 39m 04s
February 02, 2025
A Father's Legacy
Peter reflects on his father's battle with cancer and their final conversations.
“He said he wasn’t going to die until I got to orbit.”
@ 45m 39s
February 02, 2025
The PVC Suit Incident
A hilarious moment where a makeshift PVC suit was worn while handling hazardous materials.
“I fashioned myself a PVC suit out of rubbish bags.”
@ 54m 46s
February 02, 2025
The Launch That Changed Everything
Reflecting on a pivotal launch day where everything was at stake, leading to future success.
“That was a big day for sure because we had no money.”
@ 01h 03m 44s
February 02, 2025
The Search for Life on Venus
A probe mission aims to explore the clouds of Venus for signs of life. "It's like a sign of life."
“It's like a sign of life.”
@ 01h 10m 18s
February 02, 2025
Passion Over Qualifications
The best employees show passion and dedication, not just impressive CVs. "What are you doing in your spare time?"
“What are you doing in your spare time?”
@ 01h 16m 22s
February 02, 2025
The Importance of Vulnerability
Being open and vulnerable can lead to deeper connections and understanding.
“It's uncomfortable to talk about, but it's important.”
@ 01h 27m 24s
February 02, 2025
Legacy and Impact
Your legacy is defined by the impact you have on the world.
“The only way you achieve immortality is by achieving something for the planet.”
@ 01h 35m 11s
February 02, 2025

Episode Quotes

Have the most amount of impact you can have with your life.
Sir Peter Beck Opens Up on Childhood, Inspiration for Rocket Lab, Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos Competition
One screw can bring it down.
Sir Peter Beck Opens Up on Childhood, Inspiration for Rocket Lab, Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos Competition
I was just naive as anything.
Sir Peter Beck Opens Up on Childhood, Inspiration for Rocket Lab, Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos Competition
You’re definitely a hyper fixator, aren’t you?
Sir Peter Beck Opens Up on Childhood, Inspiration for Rocket Lab, Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos Competition
You cannot do amazing things 8 to 5.
Sir Peter Beck Opens Up on Childhood, Inspiration for Rocket Lab, Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos Competition
If you're hungry and passionate, you can do anything.
Sir Peter Beck Opens Up on Childhood, Inspiration for Rocket Lab, Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos Competition

Key Moments

Type Three Fun04:34
Starting Rocket Lab43:48
Work Ethic1:15:14
Passion in Hiring1:16:11
Leadership and Vision1:17:50
Mental Health Strategies1:20:13
Vulnerability1:27:24
Legacy1:35:04

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

Meet The First Kiwi In Space & RocketLab Co-Founder: Mark Rocket

September 21, 2025

01:23:09

Meet The First Kiwi In Space & RocketLab Co-Founder: Mark Rocket

Jason Paris on One NZ’s Partnership with Elon Musk & SpaceX, Warriors vs. Referees & Fatherhood

December 11, 2024

01:38:44

Jason Paris on One NZ’s Partnership with Elon Musk & SpaceX, Warriors vs. Referees & Fatherhood

The Earliest Days Of Rocket Lab!

September 23, 2025

00:36

The Earliest Days Of Rocket Lab!

Xero Founder Sir Rod Drury: Fixing NZ’s Biggest Problems

February 01, 2026

01:49:23

Xero Founder Sir Rod Drury: Fixing NZ’s Biggest Problems

Bay Dreams Co-founder Mitch Lowe - Controversy, Fisher In NZ & MILLIONS LOST!

May 21, 2025

01:55:40

Bay Dreams Co-founder Mitch Lowe - Controversy, Fisher In NZ & MILLIONS LOST!

One NZ CEO: "Elon Musk Is Years Ahead Of Everyone Else"

April 22, 2026

01:39:07

One NZ CEO: "Elon Musk Is Years Ahead Of Everyone Else"

Sharesies Co-Founder (AND My Cousin!) - Sonya Williams DEBUNKS Stereotypes About Kiwis & Money

November 06, 2024

01:36:48

Sharesies Co-Founder (AND My Cousin!) - Sonya Williams DEBUNKS Stereotypes About Kiwis & Money

Anna Mowbray on ZURU’s Origin Story, Life in China, Parenting with Ali Williams, Auckland FC & More!

July 21, 2024

01:27:16

Anna Mowbray on ZURU’s Origin Story, Life in China, Parenting with Ali Williams, Auckland FC & More!

Inside NZ’s Biggest Business: Miles Hurrell - The Accidental CEO

February 15, 2026

01:37:08

Inside NZ’s Biggest Business: Miles Hurrell - The Accidental CEO

The Kiwi Creator who Interviewed Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Terry Crews & Tony Hawk - Fraser Grut

January 15, 2025

01:02:05

The Kiwi Creator who Interviewed Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Terry Crews & Tony Hawk - Fraser Grut

Dion Nash Reflects on Business Journey, Cricket Career, Cannabis Controversy & More!

June 09, 2024

02:24:53

Dion Nash Reflects on Business Journey, Cricket Career, Cannabis Controversy & More!

There's way more to Leigh Hart than you may realise! || Runners Only! Podcast with Dom Harvey

May 13, 2023

01:45:42

There's way more to Leigh Hart than you may realise! || Runners Only! Podcast with Dom Harvey