The facts are these: Peter Beck is the founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, and Rocket Lab is an absolute beast in the aerospace world. It has launched more than 60 times from spaceports in New Zealand and the US and is in the midst of creating a bigger, more powerful rocket to help it earn more business and compete more directly against SpaceX and others.

Beck and Rocket Lab also happen to be near and dear to my heart. I wrote a book about them and made a movie about them.

Beck has an incredible life story. He’s a self-taught rocket engineer who built a commercial space giant in New Zealand. None of this should really be possible. You’re supposed to have a PhD in aerospace and/or billions of dollars to be successful in the rocket game, and you’re supposed to build rockets in places that have some experience building rockets. Nonetheless, here we are. Rocket Lab sits alongside SpaceX as the obvious winners to date in the commercial rocket and commercial space games.

We’re thrilled that Beck gave us some time as he crunches away on preparing the Neutron rocket for its first launch.

This episode was made possible by the fine people at E1 Ventures. We thank them for their support.

Enjoy!

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