THE MAN BEHIND ROCKET LAB
Rocket Lab had a very successful 2019, with six successful launches, and you managed to build your American base. How do you look back on that year personally?
2019 was a solid year. 2020, at least pre-COVID, was going to be a much bigger year. I’m super proud of the team last year. Like you say, we got six vehicles away, which put us in place for being the fourth most launched rocket in the world [that year]. This year we were planning to double that, and we’ll see if we can still hold to that plan.
We’ve got the first flight of our Photon satellite platform. We acquired a satellite company with similar components and we’ve moved much further down the road for recovery as well. So 2020, even though it’s early days, is shaping up to be a really big year, but I’m super proud of the team for 2019.
To come along so quickly in just a year is a massive achievement. What do you put that down to?
Relentless execution by a very dedicated team. That’s all it comes down to. I think Rocket Lab’s approach is really good. We try to strike the balance between spending time in analysis and spending time on testing.
