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"We have our own path": Rocket Lab finds its strength in innovative thinking

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Fri, 17 Jan 2025, 10:11am
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck in the control room for NZ Herald Business Hub. Photo / Dean Purcell.
Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck in the control room for NZ Herald Business Hub. Photo / Dean Purcell.

"We have our own path": Rocket Lab finds its strength in innovative thinking

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Fri, 17 Jan 2025, 10:11am

Rocket Lab founder Sir Peter Beck is trying not to compare himself too much to his mega-wealthy rivals. 

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origins has successfully launched its first rocket into orbit overnight, while Elon Musk's SpaceX has been launching a pair of landers towards the moon. 

Rocket Lab, meanwhile, has been launching a second Varda Pioneer Spacecraft into orbit. 

Beck told Tim Beveridge he's never had the capital of his two main competitors, owned by the two wealthiest people on the planet, and he probably never will. 

He says the lack of money has forced Rocket Lab to innovate, which has become its strength. 

In other space developments, India has docked two spacecraft for the first time, while stranded NASA astronaut Suni Williams has made her first spacewalk on the ISS. 

She and her colleague Butch Wilmore aren't expected back on Earth until late March at the earliest. 

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