Latest news with #PeterBeck
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Rocket Lab Soars 8% as Launch Wins and EU Deal Keep the Momentum Going
Rocket Lab (RKLB, Financials) jumped 8% on Monday; it's the latest boost in what's been a stellar two-month stretch for the space infrastructure company. After nearly doubling in that time, shares are now up 63% year to datedriven by back-to-back launch successes and a headline partnership with the European Space Agency. Last month alone, Rocket Lab launched its 66th, 67th, and 68th missions; two of those happened within just 48 hours from the same sitean impressive feat that signals both operational maturity and growing demand. The company's Electron rocket, built for rapid and cost-efficient payload delivery, continues to fly constellations into orbit; it's no longer about one satellite at a time. CEO Peter Beck, a New Zealand native who founded Rocket Lab in 2006, told CNBC the company now produces one rocket every 15 days; he's not losing sleep over demand. Since going public via SPAC merger in 2021, the Long Beach-based firm has grown into a $19 billion player in the increasingly crowded launch market. Competition is heating up; Rocket Lab is carving out its niche alongside heavyweights like Elon Musk's SpaceX and up-and-comer Firefly Aerospace, which just filed to go public. But for now, Rocket Lab is riding highfueled by real-world launches, strong partnerships, and an industry that's expanding fast. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
CNBC
14-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Rocket Lab stock jumps 8%, building on strong two-month rally
Rocket Lab stock soared 8% Monday, building on a strong run fueled by space innovation. Shares of the space infrastructure company have nearly doubled over the last two months following a slew of successful launches and a deal with the European Union. The stock is up 63% year to date after surging nearly sixfold in 2024. Last month, Rocket Lab announced a partnership with the European Space Agency to launch satellites for constellation navigation before December. Rocket Lab also announced the successful launch of its 66th, 67th and 68th Electron rockets in June. The company successfully deployed two rockets from the same site in 48 hours. Rocket Lab competes with a growing list of companies in a maturing and increasingly competitive space industry with growing demand. Some of the main competitors in the sector include Elon Musk's SpaceX and Firefly Aerospace, which filed its prospectus to go public on Friday. "For Electron, our little rocket, we've seen increased demand over the last couple of years and we're not just launching single spacecraft — these are generally entire constellations for customers," CEO Peter Beck told CNBC last month. He said the company is producing a rocket every 15 days. Beck, a New Zealand-native, founded the company in 2006. Since its debut on the Nasdaq in August 2021 through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, the Long Beach, California-based company's market value has swelled to more than $19 billion.
The Spinoff
09-07-2025
- Business
- The Spinoff
What is Rocket Lab launching into space and why are people angry about it?
On Friday, picket signs bearing Palestine flags and banners about genocide gathered around three Rocket Lab locations in New Zealand. Why? Rocket Lab, founded in 2006 by Sir Peter Beck, is often lauded in New Zealand for catalysing our space industry. Today it still leads the sector, one with a quickly growing revenue – it was $2.68b in 2024. It's not just glowey-eyed nationalism that paints Rocket Lab favourably. Outside of New Zealand, it's seen as an ' innovative, exciting young space tech company,' and in the first quarter of 2025, Rocket Lab recorded $123 million in revenue, 32% up year-on-year. Rocket Lab is now an American corporation with headquarters in California. It offers launches from Māhia Peninsula and Virginia USA as well as aerospace manufacturing and design. While in 2008 Beck stated, ' if it's involved in the military we don't want anything to do with it,' the company won contracts from at least three US defence agencies in 2009, and seemingly never looked back. In May, Rocket Lab announced a $460 million deal with a US missile tracking tech company, positioning itself as a major contractor to US national security. In the US, Rocket Lab's rockets are the second most launched (after SpaceX). Here in New Zealand, concerns have been raised, and largely ignored by politicians, that Rocket Lab's ability to replace satellites makes the country a military target. Over the years, groups like Auckland Peace Action and Rocket Lab Monitor have accused Rocket Lab of being part of the militarisation of space and breaching New Zealand's Nuclear Free status. Many of the complaints have centered around its US military contracts. These groups have pointed out that Lockheed Martin, the world's largest weapons manufacturer, has invested in Rocket Lab and that the aerospace intelligence and communications technology that Rocket Lab develops, manufactures and launches could be used in weapon systems and other military operations. The most recent protests, from Friday, were led by Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA). Beyond the pickets, the group, along with a lawyer, have referred Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck, minister for space and for defence Judith Collins and others to the office of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Why? Because PSNA believes that Rocket Lab activities may have intentionally contributed to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed by Israel. In a statement provided to The Spinoff, a Rocket Lab spokesperson said the company 'strongly refutes PSNA's false and irresponsible claims' and that it is considering its legal options. They followed with a bullet-pointed summary of New Zealand's legal requirements for launching rockets. So what does Rocket Lab launch into space from Māhia? Rocket Lab's website says that its launches, numbering over 200 since 2018, have enabled ' operations in national security, scientific research, space debris mitigation, Earth observation, climate monitoring, and communications '. In the past the company has said it does not and will not launch weapons as this is against its commitment and New Zealand law. New Zealand's space activities are regulated by the Outer Space and High-altitude Activities Act 2017. Apart from safety considerations, the act takes into account New Zealand's international obligations and national interests like economic benefits, risks to national security and international relations. Anything launched into space must have a license granted by discretion of the government on a case-by-case basis. Cabinet has outlined some payloads not to be permitted – payloads that contribute to nuclear weapons programmes or capabilities; payloads with the intended end use of harming, interfering with, or destroying other spacecraft, or space systems; payloads with the intended end use of supporting or enabling specific defence, security or intelligence operations that are contrary to government policy; payloads where the intended end use is likely to cause serious or irreversible harm to the environment. Rocket Lab's website includes a log of launched missions. Among the clients listed are Hawkeye360, BlackSky, Capella Space, NASA, the US National Reconnaissance Office, the United States Space Force, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and RideShare. A few are labelled 'confidential commercial customer' or simply 'undisclosed'. Some media coverage states that Hawkeye360, BlackSky, Capella Space, all space-based intelligence firms, have links to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, though unsurprisingly it's hard to track down evidence and details. In its ICC referral, PSNA has taken issue with Rocket Lab's BlackSky launches in particular, claiming that ' these satellites provide high resolution images to Israel which are very likely used to assist with striking civilians in Gaza '. BlackSky has a network of satellites and sensors that capture high-frequency imagery of Earth. They monitor places and activities for clients, providing high-resolution photographs and AI-enabled analytics every hour under subscription models. This year, Rocket Lab is launching a series of BlackSky's Gen-3 satellites from Māhia Peninsula which are faster, can automatically identify smaller objects and can capture imagery through clouds, smoke or haze. In 2024, Intelligence Online, an intelligence trade publication, reported that 'BlackSky has a secret $150m contract to supply high temporal frequency images and analysis to the Israeli defence ministry'. This claim has not been reported elsewhere, but BlackSky has recently announced a new, $100+ million contract from a 'strategic international defense sector customer' for its Gen-3 monitoring capabilities. When Rocket Lab was asked by Newsroom in November last year whether payloads it had launched had been used to inform Israeli air strikes, a spokesperson pointed to other uses of commercial satellite imagery and data like disaster and humanitarian response, emergency management, national security, commerce, and environmental monitoring. A recent mission launched satellites for wildfire detection and monitoring. What don't we know? There is much we don't know and may never know about what Rocket Lab and its clients do. Some payloads have been kept confidential, yet all launches from New Zealand have to disclose information to the government in order to get the needed licenses. It's not cut and dry when the government might have obligations to release that information – under the Official Information Act information can be withheld on grounds of commercial or national security. The Spinoff contacted the office of Judith Collins for comment on Rocket Lab and the ICC referral. We were referred to the office of the prime minister who provided the following comment from a spokesperson: 'People are free to express their views but New Zealand has consistently made clear the situation in Gaza is deeply distressing, and the crisis must end. Our response to the Israel-Hamas conflict has been consistently grounded in the importance of upholding international law.'
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
The CEO of a key SpaceX rival says customers are drawn to his company because it's 'even-keeled'
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck said customers know his company "just builds rockets and satellites." Rocket Lab is a primary rival of Elon Musk's SpaceX. Beck told BI he hadn't seen any "obvious" datapoint on how Musk and Trump's feud is impacting him. As Elon Musk and President Donald Trump continue to butt heads, the CEO of Rocket Lab said that public and private sector customers alike are drawn to his company's stability. "It's fair to say that folks, both government and commercial, come to us and they know that they have a very even-keeled public company that just builds rockets and satellites, and executes against that and nothing else," Peter Beck told Business Insider in June when asked whether the feud between the world's richest man and the president benefited his company. "That becomes valuable to people." Beck added that he hasn't seen any "obvious" data point about the impact of the ongoing disagreement about Trump's spending bill. And, as of mid-June, Beck told BI that Musk hadn't come up more frequently in conversations, either. Representatives for Musk and SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment from BI. Rocket Lab is headquartered in California, though Beck is based in New Zealand. It's an end-to-end space company, meaning it offers launch services, spacecrafts, satellite parts, and on-orbit management. Despite being much smaller than SpaceX — Rocket Lab has about 2,600 employees, Beck said, compared to around 13,000 at SpaceX, according to Forbes — it has emerged as a key rival. Musk himself once called Beck "impressive." Rocket Lab's partially reusable two-stage rocket vehicle, Electron, has completed 67 launches and deployed more than 230 satellites as of the end of June, according to the company. Beck told BI that Neutron, its reusable medium-lift rocket, is scheduled to launch later this year. SpaceX's Falcon 9 currently rules the medium-lift space, having completed almost 500 missions by the end of June. "Right now, there is essentially a pseudo-monopoly on medium lift. I don't think anybody went out intentionally to create that. But nevertheless, that's a status," Beck said. "So we have both government and commercial customers cheering us on very loudly to get Neutron to the pad, because there needs to be some launch site diversification." At the time of writing, Rocket Lab's stock was rising, and the company's market cap was more than $16.8 billion. While SpaceX is a private company, BI reported it was valued at $350 billion at the end of 2024. It's suffered some recent setbacks with its Starship rockets, a successor to the Falcon model — four consecutive launches have blown up, most recently in June. Musk downplayed the latest explosion as "just a scratch," and said the company learns from data collected during failed launches. Some of Musk's companies have suffered due to his public, sometimes ugly, on-again-off-again relationship with Trump, especially Tesla. Polling indicates that Musk's favorability is still underwater, even after he left his government role. Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Broadcast Pro
30-06-2025
- Business
- Broadcast Pro
Rocket Lab deploys 68th Electron mission
The launch was the second Electron mission in less than 48 hours. Rocket Lab has launched its 68th Electron rocket to deploy a single satellite to space for a confidential commercial customer. The mission was the second of two launches from the same launch site in less than 48 hours, a new launch record for the company as it continues to deliver dedicated, repeatable and reliable access to space for satellite operators. The Symphony In The Stars mission lifted-off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand, to deploy a single spacecraft to a 650km circular Earth orbit. The mission was the first of two dedicated launches for the new customer on Electron booked less than four months ago, with a second mission scheduled before the end of 2025. Rocket Lab has now completed four launches in June for commercial satellite constellation operators, underscoring Electron's consistent performance and rapid deployment capabilities as the worlds leading small launcher: the Full Stream Ahead mission on June 3; The Mountain God Guards mission on June 11; Get The Hawk Outta Here launched on June 26 UTC, and todays Symphony In The Stars mission. Rocket Lab Founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck, said: 'Electron has demonstrated once again that it is the gold standard for responsive and reliable space access for small satellites. The future of space is built on proven performance, and Electron continues to deliver against a stacked launch manifest this year. Congratulations to the team on achieving its fastest launch turnaround yet between two missions from Launch Complex 1. This launch was also a quick-turn mission to meet our customers mission requirements, and were looking forward to doing it again later this year.' Symphony In The Stars was Rocket Labs tenth Electron mission of 2025 and its 68th launch overall. With 100% mission success so far this year, Electron continues to deliver reliable deployment amid an increasing launch cadence and rapid contract-to-launch timelines.
