Rocket Lab: Peter Beck defends spy satellite work, ex-director speaks of leaving

Friday, 24 July 2020

Peter Beck speaks about his company's work for the US intelligence community (first published July 2020).

Rocket Lab’s meteoric rise in the global space industry hit turbulence recently with its first operational mission loss. Meanwhile, questions continue over its launch of US intelligence satellites from New Zealand soil.

Stuff reporter George Block sat down with co-founder and chief executive Peter Beck at the company’s Auckland factory. He also spoke to the company’s seed investor and former co-director Mark Rocket, who parted ways with the company in 2011 after it started taking defence contracts.

You can’t tell the story of Rocket Lab without Mark Rocket.

While Peter Beck founded the aerospace company in 2006, it was Rocket who provided the seed capital and served as co-director in those first years as it strove to get off the ground.

Rocket, who changed his name by deed poll about two decades ago and was the first Kiwi to buy a ticket to space with Virgin Galactic, was often the star of early media appearances for Rocket Lab.

A message Rocket wrote on his website in early 2007 paints a utopian view of the potential for space travel, harking back to the 1960s.

* Rocket Lab's $11.5 million rocket burns up on re-entering atmosphere

Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Peter Beck at the company's Auckland factory (file photo).

* The Detail: What is Rocket Lab doing in space - and who for?

* Rocket Lab mission blasts off, US spy agency's satellites deployed

“I believe it’s paramount for humankind to establish sustainable long-term colonies in space, which will open up infinite resources and ease humanity’s burden on planet Earth,” he wrote.

In a 2008 profile published in Metro magazine, Beck ruled out military work when discussing if there were payloads Rocket Lab wouldn’t carry.

Mark Rocket watches the Atea One rocket lift off in 2009.

“Of course … we said right from the beginning if it’s involved in the military we don’t want anything to do with it. The military can be quite a tempting cherry because a lot of money gets poured into it, but we’re about science, we’re not about killing people,” Beck is quoted as saying.

His views have evolved, and he now believes military intelligence helps keep Kiwis safe.

About two years later, the company landed a contract with the United States Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which develops cutting-edge military technology.

The work involved a new Viscous Liquid Monopropellant rocket motor, and was successful, earning a patent in 2012.

One of the patent application's various classifications is inter-continental ballistic missiles, which are primarily designed to deliver nuclear weapons.

Defence work continues to be lucrative for Rocket Lab. US Government records show the company won another DARPA contract, valued at almost $7 million US, in 2018.

It also secured a $100,000 contract from the Department of the Army and a $50,000 deal with the Department of the Air Force.

The National Reconnaissance Office NROL-39 mission patch.

A nearly $7 million contract with NASA started in 2015 and another of even greater value launched in February.

In 2019, the company was selected by the US Air Force as one of eight launch providers that will compete for $986 million worth of orders.

But its defence work has proved controversial in some quarters.

Green Party foreign policy spokeswoman Golriz Ghahraman said in 2020 her party was concerned about Rocket Lab launching a satellite for US spy agency, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), from the Mahia Peninsula launch complex, on the east coast of the North Island.

The NRO is responsible for spy satellites and is a member of the US intelligence community.

It keeps a much lower profile than the Central Intelligence Agency or National Security Agency, but provoked controversy with a 2013 mission patch.

The patch’s logo features an Octopus encircling the globe with the phrase “nothing is beyond our reach”.

Mark Rocket parted ways with the company, now headquartered in California, in 2011.

He told Stuff he was pleased to see the company, which had about 500 employees last year and is at the cutting edge of private space flight globally, continuing to succeed.

So why did he leave?

“Initially we were hoping not to do … certain types of projects,” he said.

“There were a few projects that I wasn’t so keen on.”

It was difficult to find customers in those early years as the company developed its suborbital sounding rocket Ātea, he said.

Rocket Lab Senior Engineer Nikhil Raghu, chief executive Peter Beck and co-director Mark Rocket, pose in front of the Atea-1rocket as it awaited its final check in Auckland on November 22, 2009.

“In the end we had to kind of move towards different areas, which wasn’t part of the original plan.”

He would not say exactly what projects led to his departure the year after the early DARPA contract.

“I’d rather not say, but initially we were aiming for more commercial applications.”

“But the reality is … it made sense for Rocket Lab to do some stepping stone projects.

“And that’s gone on to work incredibly well for Rocket Lab.”

Rocket said it made perfect business sense for the company to work on a range of projects.

“But I wasn’t passionate about that, I was passionate about the commercial side.

“You’ve got to sort of work out where that line is for you.”

Rocket, who now lives in Canterbury, said he did not cross paths with Beck much these days, but they remained on friendly terms.

Stuff caught up with Beck at his new Mt Wellington factory in Auckland, following the company’s launch of New Zealand’s first space apprenticeship program.

Rocket Lab, a space systems company and the global leader in dedicated small satellite launch, successfully launches its 12th Electron mission, deploying satellites to orbit for NASA, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and the University of New South Wales.

He sat in a board room overlooking the cavernous factory, where engineers and technicians worked on rockets beneath huge American and New Zealand flags of equal size.

Beck had a very different reply from 2008 when asked if he had any qualms about sending US spy satellites into space, given the intelligence they collect can be used in military operations.

“You also have to remember that intelligence keeps us safe.

“Unfortunately there’s a lot of bad actors in the world.

“I am a New Zealander, but you also have to understand that national security is a global thing. It’s not a singular country’s responsibility.

“New Zealand is part of the Five Eyes … it’s all very well to criticise national security until the very day that you need it.”

Beck said all company spacecraft go through an “incredibly rigorous” process of approvals prior to launch.

Inside the Rocket Lab factory in Mt Wellington, Auckland.

“No spacecraft gets to orbit without ministerial sign-off and going through the gauntlet of all of the national tests that are required to be able to fly successfully.

“At the end of the day, think of us as a glorified freight company, in a highly regulated environment.”

Rocket Lab’s Electron rockets carry far more than just defence satellites to space.

The company’s 13th launch, which was the first to end in failure and ended an unusually successful run for a space company, carried small earth-imaging satellites from private companies.

An investigation into the loss continues and Beck said the company was not flying until Rocket Lab understood the root cause.

“Everybody understands that when you put a satellite on top of a launch vehicle there’s always that risk.

An Electron Rocket before the launch of the 11th mission.

“We’ll correct the issue and it’ll be an even more reliable launch vehicle.”

Beck said the company’s flight success rate was unparalleled.

“If you take some of the most successful companies in the world … by their 13th flight, they’ve lost anywhere between three to five rockets.

“So to lose our first one so late is a real testament to the diligence of the team, but eventually, it’s such a complex machine … that day will occur.”

Beck said most of the companies that lost payloads would have taken out launch insurance but further details were commercially sensitive.

Rocket Lab now builds a new Electron launch vehicle every 18 days.

In the next few months, the company will take off for the first time from its Launch Complex 2 on Wallops Island, Virginia, in a US Space Force mission.

Next year, Rocket Lab will launch its small Photon satellite into orbit around the moon on mission for NASA, as a prelude to a planned new space station called Lunar Gateway, which will orbit the moon and is set to launch in 2024.

Beck said he wanted the company to continue growing.

“I would say Rocket Lab is about 30 per cent where I want it to be.”

Rocket now runs his own company in Canterbury, Kea Aerospace.

Kea is developing a high altitude pseudo-satellite to fly in the stratosphere and is working to build the aerospace sector in the area.

The solar-powered, unmanned vehicle with a 35m wingspan will fly 20km above the earth and could remain airborne for months at a time, gathering high resolution imagery which could be used for agriculture and disaster management, Rocket said.

Kea aimed to stay commercially oriented and is not on track to follow Rocket Lab into defence contracting.

Rocket says he retains a small commercial interest in Rocket Lab.

He is quick to praise his former business partner and the company’s creation of an orbital space program without any serious investment from the New Zealand government.

“The reality is, Rocket Lab has contributed a lot to making space more accessible.”

“It is an incredible success story for New Zealand, and Peter and the team have done a marvellous job.”