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Is Neutron almost ready? Peter Beck interview · The SME Stream

0:00
Speaker 1: The information provided in this program is of a general
0:02
Speaker 1: nature and is not intended to be personalized financial advice.
0:05
Speaker 1: We encourage you to seek appropriate advice from a qualified
0:07
Speaker 1: professional to suit your individual circumstances.
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Speaker 2: Hi Madison, Hi Aeron, Welcome to Rocket Lab. I'm not
0:14
Speaker 2: going to touch anybod I promise.
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Speaker 1: I'm too terrified to touch anything.
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Speaker 2: This is insane. I want to hug it. I'm speechless.
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Speaker 2: I don't know what to say.
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Speaker 1: I'm standing on a rocket launching platform. So ALC two
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Speaker 1: is dedicated for Electron and HASTE missions. But from what
0:33
Speaker 1: you've just shown me, Aaron is way too small for Neutron.
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Speaker 1: That baby's going to launch next door, right and AlSi three, can.
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Speaker 3: We go see it? Let's go.
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Speaker 1: Before we left for the United States, we came here
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Speaker 1: to Rocket Labs and Mission Control in Auckland, New Zealand,
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Speaker 1: where I spoke to Sir Peter Beck about the readiness
0:52
Speaker 1: of Neutron and why some may be doubting him and
0:55
Speaker 1: his company's execution.
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Speaker 4: I think there's a lot of suspicion within our industry,
1:00
Speaker 4: and we always, you know, always, my CFO always reminds
1:04
Speaker 4: me that we have the best house on the worst Street.
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Speaker 1: This is the engine that will fire rocket Lab's next rocket, Neutron.
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Speaker 1: The space company dropped this hot fire hype video last
1:25
Speaker 1: month showing the Archimedes being tested at NASA's Stenna Space
1:29
Speaker 1: Center in Mississippi, cooling down critics who suggested the company
1:34
Speaker 1: had complications heading this critical development milestone. Rocket Lab revealed
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Speaker 1: its bold plan to build a bigger rocket in March
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Speaker 1: twenty twenty one.
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Speaker 4: The some things we said we'd never do, but we're
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Speaker 4: going to build a big rocket.
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Speaker 3: It's called Neutron.
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Speaker 1: The forty three meter high medium lift launch vehicle will
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Speaker 1: be twice the height of its existing Electron rocket and
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Speaker 1: almost six times its diameter, allowing Neutron to carry forty
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Speaker 1: three times more mass to lower orbit. Both rockets are
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Speaker 1: made of carbon composite, but the key difference between them
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Speaker 1: is reusability. While rocket Lab later added recovery to Electron,
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Speaker 1: Neutron will have it built in from the beginning, with
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Speaker 1: the ability to re enter Earth's atmosphere and land on
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Speaker 1: its launch.
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Speaker 2: Pad to be refueled and reflown.
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Speaker 1: Parts are already under construction, and a machine has been
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Speaker 1: built to automate the production of its carbon fiber components
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Speaker 1: in the United States, where.
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Speaker 2: Neutron will launch from. But the big question is when
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Speaker 2: launching twenty twenty four.
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Speaker 1: That timeline has now slipped slightly, with Serpeter Beck announcing
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Speaker 1: this year that Neutron will now launch in mid twenty
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Speaker 1: twenty five.
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Speaker 2: On that agenda, Neutron would still be.
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Speaker 1: The fastest ever commercially developed medium lift rocket.
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Speaker 4: Because at rocket Lab, when we say we are going
3:00
Speaker 4: to do something, we do it.
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Speaker 2: But some still have their doubts.
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Speaker 1: Short interest in rocket Lab rose five percent in the
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Speaker 1: past month, according to market Beat, taking total short interest
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Speaker 1: in the company to nineteen point eight percent of its
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Speaker 1: float with less than a year ago to a launch.
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Speaker 1: We visited Beck in Auckland to ask for a development
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Speaker 1: update and how he thinks about investors' emotional ties to neutrons.
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Speaker 2: So, Peter Beck, good to see, good to be Beck.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, great to chat.
3:34
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it.
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Speaker 1: This is all about neutron readiness. So let's go back
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Speaker 1: to the beginning. You announced Neutron, and was it March
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Speaker 1: twenty twenty one? Around me, it would have been about
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Speaker 1: then yet, so that's now.
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Speaker 2: An end of twenty twenty four. It's roughly about four years.
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Speaker 1: Ago you thought that you were going to be launching
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Speaker 1: a rocket by now, obviously we're not there yet.
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Speaker 2: How would you rate the pace of the neutron program
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Speaker 2: so far?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I mean it's a crazy pace. And although
4:01
Speaker 3: you know we're.
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Speaker 4: Call it six months behind or you know, slightly more,
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Speaker 4: you should put that into context of a rocket program.
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Speaker 4: You know, a rocket program you measure in decades, not
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Speaker 4: in years. So it was an ambitious target and that's
4:14
Speaker 4: the way we roll. But you know, the progress of
4:17
Speaker 4: the team in the vehicle and the pad and the
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Speaker 4: infrastructure and all the stuff that goes along with it
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Speaker 4: has been pretty astounding.
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Speaker 2: We are going to talk about all of those details
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Speaker 2: you mentioned. An ambitious target.
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Speaker 1: Is twenty twenty five ambitious or is that realistic at
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Speaker 1: the stage?
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Speaker 4: Well, we know, I mean we always we always cavit
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Speaker 4: everything we say and with with it's a rocket program,
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Speaker 4: right and you know, the programs on track for that
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Speaker 4: for that launch date, and everything's good. But it only
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Speaker 4: takes one small element to you know, to to reset
4:45
Speaker 4: those sorts of things. But as it stands today, no,
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Speaker 4: we're you know, we're feeling and looking good for that.
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Speaker 4: But like I say, kevit, it's a rocket program like
4:53
Speaker 4: a bad dad. The office generally means you have no
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Speaker 4: office anymore. So you know, some of those some of
4:58
Speaker 4: those things can conceive it back.
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Speaker 2: So tell us everything that has been done so far.
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Speaker 1: You have, oh my goodness, tested Archimedes, the whole fire,
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Speaker 1: You've built the pad for LC three, You've got the
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Speaker 1: water tower up, changed the skyline at Wallops, you're building
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Speaker 1: the new ICF.
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Speaker 3: What's yet to go.
5:16
Speaker 4: There's like a lot of people think of a rocket
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Speaker 4: program and you know, it's just the rocket, but the
5:21
Speaker 4: rocket is actually.
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Speaker 3: A relatively small element.
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Speaker 4: And you know that the pad infrastructure is just like
5:27
Speaker 4: we take all of the concrete in the in the
5:29
Speaker 4: you know, the larger region for days on end just
5:31
Speaker 4: to do one thing. So these infrastructure projects are just
5:35
Speaker 4: massive and the amount of capital and time that goes
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Speaker 4: into putting steel and concrete in the ground is enormous.
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Speaker 3: And then the factories itself.
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Speaker 4: You know, we bought the Virgin Orbit factory and just
5:43
Speaker 4: converted that that one large factory that used to make
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Speaker 4: whole rockets. It just makes engines now for for Neutron
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Speaker 4: and Archimedes, so the same with the engine test cells,
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Speaker 4: and there's just so much infrastructure that goes in and
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Speaker 4: around actually putting something on the pad, the actual rocket itself,
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Speaker 4: you know, it's it's a relatively small or element.
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Speaker 3: The tanks and what's not a relatively small element.
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Speaker 4: So you know, these these projects are just massive infrastructure projects.
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Speaker 1: So if you look at everything that's still yet to
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Speaker 1: be done until you can actually assemble all the parts
6:11
Speaker 1: for neutron, what is the most difficult and there's sort
6:14
Speaker 1: of most precarious story.
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Speaker 4: Well, i'd say all the really big high risk items
6:19
Speaker 4: we've kind of brought down. I mean, you can you
6:21
Speaker 4: can break a rocket program into into kind of three things.
6:24
Speaker 4: One one is infrastructure, which you talk about, one is propulsion,
6:27
Speaker 4: and the other is structures or tanks. And you know,
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Speaker 4: propulsion were really we took a relatively different well we
6:36
Speaker 4: did to quite a different path with propulsion. For example, Normally,
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Speaker 4: you develop elements of an engine and you put them
6:43
Speaker 4: on an engine test stand and you test like a
6:46
Speaker 4: thrust chamber or a commission chamber, and then you might
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Speaker 4: test elements of a pump, elements of a valve, and
6:51
Speaker 4: then you know, years later you bring them together and
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Speaker 4: then years later than that you actually put it on
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Speaker 4: a production line and produce it. We didn't take that approach.
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Speaker 4: I mean, we built five and something engines. We kind
7:02
Speaker 4: of know we're doing these days. So we built the
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Speaker 4: production line for that engine. Everything that you know, that
7:08
Speaker 4: first engine that went on the stand there was just
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Speaker 4: no flight, you know, no no industrial articles on there.
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Speaker 4: It was all flight, whether it be you know, wirring loombs,
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Speaker 4: engine controllers, valves, you know, everything, pumps it. It was
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Speaker 4: built on a production line by production technicians, and that
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Speaker 4: is the engine that we intend to fly. And you
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Speaker 4: know that that that is an approach, you know, it's
7:34
Speaker 4: just a little bit risky in the fact that if
7:35
Speaker 4: that engine had a fundamental issure performed very badly, you know,
7:40
Speaker 4: then the program would be behind. But on the flip
7:42
Speaker 4: side to that, you know, now we're banging engines out
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Speaker 4: of a production line, so the program and unless on
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Speaker 4: the propulsion side, is now ahead. So you know, it's swing,
7:50
Speaker 4: swings and roundabouts and that in that sense.
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Speaker 1: Everyone always talks about the timeline for neutron, but time
7:56
Speaker 1: is obviously money. How much money have you spent on neutron?
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Speaker 1: And then how much of the expected total initial cost YEP.
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Speaker 4: So when we first came to came public, we kind
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Speaker 4: of said that, you know, Neutron was going to consume
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Speaker 4: somewhere between two and fifteenth roundred million USD and yeah,
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Speaker 4: we're we're on target for that. So you know, as
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Speaker 4: far as you know, holding to budget is pretty impressive.
8:18
Speaker 4: But once again, you always have to put this into context.
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Speaker 4: I mean, you know Vulcan, the Vulcan launch vehicle from ULA,
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Speaker 4: I think Tory recently publicized it was somewhere between seven
8:29
Speaker 4: and nine billion dollars to put that vehicle on the pad,
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Speaker 4: So you know, a f under a million dollars is
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Speaker 4: crazy small to do what we're going to do.
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Speaker 3: And then you know there's still more expenditure after that.
8:40
Speaker 4: Of course, we as we scale because that gets us
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Speaker 4: a rocket on the pad at a particular rate. But
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Speaker 4: you know, we hope to have a pretty decent clip
8:48
Speaker 4: on these vehicles. So you need to continue to invest
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Speaker 4: in the program as it goes through.
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Speaker 1: The reason I ask us because I was wondering if
8:53
Speaker 1: you might need to raise capital to cenish it.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I mean you saw us do that convertible
8:58
Speaker 4: note earlier in the year, and that was really to
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Speaker 4: put some powder in the barrels for acquisitions. As far
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Speaker 4: as far as Neutron goes, we don't need to raise
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Speaker 4: any capital for.
9:06
Speaker 3: Their pre paid for Yeah, yeah, yeah.
9:08
Speaker 4: I mean, and of course, you know, things start to
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Speaker 4: get much more interesting when you start flying customers payloads,
9:14
Speaker 4: because you know, the balance sheet looks totally different because
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Speaker 4: it's a it's a fifty five million dollar launch at
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Speaker 4: that point, whereas right now it's all R and D.
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Speaker 3: So things things change pretty quickly.
9:25
Speaker 1: You mentioned at the very beginning of this conversation how
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Speaker 1: rocket development timelines are typically measured in decades or years,
9:32
Speaker 1: and delays of this scale or of even larger and
9:35
Speaker 1: not indifferent in this industry. You only have to look
9:39
Speaker 1: at Blue Origin and then New Glen, which has now
9:41
Speaker 1: impacted your NASA Escapade mission, which you made some satellites for.
9:46
Speaker 2: But how patient do you.
9:47
Speaker 1: Think investors generally speaking are in watching and waiting for
9:53
Speaker 1: developments in this industry.
9:54
Speaker 3: Probably not as impatient as I am.
9:56
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, look, I think if you're if you're
9:59
Speaker 4: in investing in a rocket company, and you've done your diligence,
10:02
Speaker 4: then then then these things should should should should be
10:05
Speaker 4: part part of course really but but at the end
10:08
Speaker 4: of the day, I mean, we're we're a commercial enterteering
10:11
Speaker 4: where we're trying to build a profitable company. So nobody
10:15
Speaker 4: is more motivated than us to you know, to get
10:18
Speaker 4: through that development and then and then through the scaling
10:20
Speaker 4: and and all the rest of it. But you know,
10:23
Speaker 4: if if, if, if you're if you're an investor, and
10:27
Speaker 4: you know, I think anybody in the space industry has
10:30
Speaker 4: to be a little bit patient for sure.
10:32
Speaker 1: So why did you feel I need to drop in
10:34
Speaker 1: Archimedes engine hot fire hype for the Oh.
10:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was super funny.
10:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, I mean I think I think one could
10:42
Speaker 4: could make a direct correlation between the increasing value of
10:46
Speaker 4: the company and the short interest and uh and and
10:50
Speaker 4: you know, those kinds of things happen and in.
10:54
Speaker 3: This you know, in this world.
10:55
Speaker 4: So look, generally, we we just we just keep a
10:59
Speaker 4: hisn and just do stuff. And you know, so we're
11:04
Speaker 4: not we're not fixated on every hot fire, you know,
11:07
Speaker 4: posting and all the rest of it.
11:08
Speaker 3: But we're opportunities to have a little bit of fun
11:11
Speaker 3: come along then not to.
11:13
Speaker 1: Just to be clear that first hot fire did or
11:16
Speaker 1: did not fail.
11:17
Speaker 3: Of course it didn't fail.
11:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, no, I mean there was no catastrophic explosion
11:23
Speaker 4: or anything anything like that, not at all.
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Speaker 2: So we can dispell that Reddit room or run now.
11:27
Speaker 3: Well, I think we already have.
11:28
Speaker 4: I mean, if you watch the videos, you can see
11:29
Speaker 4: serial number one engine running. So I think, yeah, I
11:34
Speaker 4: think that's pretty pretty pretty straightforward.
11:36
Speaker 1: Short interest when I checked was eighteen percent of the
11:39
Speaker 1: total float, eleven percent of the total shares outstanding, if
11:42
Speaker 1: you'd prefer that, Cigre, What do you make of that
11:45
Speaker 1: increasing short interest.
11:46
Speaker 2: In your company?
11:47
Speaker 4: Well, I mean when we did the convert, there's always
11:49
Speaker 4: more shorts that come along with with the convert, and
11:52
Speaker 4: it's not surprising at all. In fact's probably surprising is
11:56
Speaker 4: that low given given the amount of failure the space industry.
12:00
Speaker 4: I mean, you only you don't need to look far
12:03
Speaker 4: to see just a large number of you know, space companies,
12:07
Speaker 4: especially launch companies that really had no chance, promised the
12:10
Speaker 4: Earth and then just absolutely you know, ran into a war.
12:14
Speaker 3: So so, you.
12:15
Speaker 4: Know, I think I think there's a lot of suspicion
12:17
Speaker 4: within within our industry. And we always, you know, always,
12:21
Speaker 4: you know, my CFO always reminds me that we have
12:23
Speaker 4: the best house on the worst street. And you know
12:27
Speaker 4: along with that comes comes these kinds of things.
12:30
Speaker 2: Does that sick of them feel you to want to
12:32
Speaker 2: prove them wrong?
12:35
Speaker 3: I mean no, I'm not.
12:37
Speaker 4: I don't wake up every morning and look at the
12:39
Speaker 4: short interests and think, oh my goodness. I wake up
12:40
Speaker 4: every morning thinking, right, we've got we've got a milestones
12:43
Speaker 4: to head. How do we get here? And and you know,
12:45
Speaker 4: I think you know, Mutron unlocks a number of things
12:49
Speaker 4: for the company. Right, Look, it breaks apart what is
12:52
Speaker 4: essentially a monopoly within within medium launch.
12:55
Speaker 3: But the other thing it does for us is it gives.
12:56
Speaker 4: Us multi ton capability to deploy our own air seats
12:59
Speaker 4: on orbit. So you know that really opens up the
13:02
Speaker 4: third leg of the stool for Rocket Labs. So Neutron
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Speaker 4: is important for two very different reasons.
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Speaker 1: I do want to talk more about the opportunity, especially
13:11
Speaker 1: revenue wise, that Neutron brings to Rocket Lab. But just
13:14
Speaker 1: still on this investor thesis and mindset at the moment,
13:17
Speaker 1: it feels to me and seems to me like there's
13:19
Speaker 1: a bit of a divide among investors. There's the doubts
13:23
Speaker 1: who you've just spoken about. There and then there's the
13:25
Speaker 1: loyal defenders. When you first announced Neutron, you said, quote,
13:30
Speaker 1: when we say we're going to do something at Rocket Lab,
13:32
Speaker 1: we do it time and time again.
13:35
Speaker 3: Yeah.
13:35
Speaker 2: Why do you think now there.
13:37
Speaker 1: Seems to be increasing rumors and doubt that you and
13:41
Speaker 1: this company may not execute on what you say you're
13:44
Speaker 1: going to.
13:45
Speaker 3: Wow?
13:46
Speaker 4: I mean, look, I think I think that always, you know,
13:49
Speaker 4: always be doubters. But I think you know, the majority
13:52
Speaker 4: of people that we talk to and we interface with,
13:55
Speaker 4: and I think you can see that judged in the
13:58
Speaker 4: increase in performances of the company is that you know,
14:03
Speaker 4: we do do what we said we were going to do.
14:05
Speaker 4: You know, we said we were going to build some
14:07
Speaker 4: Mars spacecraft and deliver them on time.
14:09
Speaker 3: Guess what we did it?
14:11
Speaker 4: And you know, and there's there's enough history there to
14:14
Speaker 4: go back.
14:15
Speaker 3: So look, I mean, if if people people.
14:18
Speaker 4: Want to underestimate us, and you know, whatever, that that
14:22
Speaker 4: that's that's their progative. But you know, a reputation stands
14:26
Speaker 4: on its own its own feet.
14:28
Speaker 1: If we put a reality ruler over Neutron and what
14:31
Speaker 1: it means for this company and its future, two thirds
14:35
Speaker 1: of this business today perhaps not on the future, we
14:37
Speaker 1: will talk about how the revenue max may change with Neutron.
14:40
Speaker 1: But today two thirds of this business as space systems,
14:43
Speaker 1: makes up the majority of your revenue, right, so how
14:47
Speaker 1: much or weight and emphasis should investors actually place on
14:50
Speaker 1: Neutron for now?
14:53
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, look, I mean, yes, two thirds of
14:56
Speaker 4: our revenue is from space systems, but that's because we
14:58
Speaker 4: have a launch vehicle that has an ASP of a
15:00
Speaker 4: a half million dollars, so, you know, and it's it's
15:03
Speaker 4: launch launching frequently that that's great.
15:05
Speaker 3: But it's only an eight and a half million doll
15:07
Speaker 3: a SP.
15:08
Speaker 4: I mean, if you have Neutron at fifty five, then
15:11
Speaker 4: it's then that the balance sort of moves again. And
15:14
Speaker 4: we've always wanted to have a relatively heavy space systems
15:18
Speaker 4: element to the business anyway, because launch is super lumpy
15:22
Speaker 4: and whereas space system is very predictable and has a
15:25
Speaker 4: much much greater smoothing effect. And you see that today
15:28
Speaker 4: where you know, if a customer doesn't turn up to
15:30
Speaker 4: the pad and we have to revise a number of
15:31
Speaker 4: launches we're going to do in the quarter, it's irrelevant
15:33
Speaker 4: to earnings. And I think that's that's you know, you know,
15:36
Speaker 4: that's a good a good place to be. But you know,
15:40
Speaker 4: I think I think neutron going forward, as we've talked
15:43
Speaker 4: about it, it unlocks monopoly and it unlocks the third
15:47
Speaker 4: stool to create some really significant value.
15:50
Speaker 1: Let's do the maths in lifetime then eight and a
15:53
Speaker 1: half mel to fly lectron, fifty five US meal to
15:56
Speaker 1: fly neutron. You've told me previously that you target a
15:58
Speaker 1: fifty percent margin on both. So say you take about
16:01
Speaker 1: twenty seven mili per neutron launch. You've told me your
16:04
Speaker 1: dream cadence is about twice a month. Obviously, wone get
16:07
Speaker 1: there at the beginning of neutron, but that means you'll
16:09
Speaker 1: be earning one.
16:10
Speaker 3: It's not a dream cadence, that's just like a good.
16:12
Speaker 2: Cadence, right, realistic cadence.
16:15
Speaker 3: I like realism is realistic for that period in time.
16:17
Speaker 1: But yes, so then if we take the realism and
16:20
Speaker 1: those figures, with the fifty percent margin on neutron, you'd
16:23
Speaker 1: be collecting and pocketing fifty mili fifty five mil per
16:27
Speaker 1: month if you're doing two launches on neutron, and then
16:30
Speaker 1: once you use that money to break even on the
16:32
Speaker 1: max three hundred mil spend it's all upside from there.
16:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, the return on investment of a neutron
16:38
Speaker 4: is very fast if you can do it for a
16:41
Speaker 4: few hundred million dollars. Now if you've if you like
16:44
Speaker 4: others have spent billions, then that ori is a is
16:47
Speaker 4: a bit a bit longer. But yeah, I mean, and
16:50
Speaker 4: that's all good business, and that's all all important. But
16:54
Speaker 4: I think don't forget there's a three hundred and twenty
16:56
Speaker 4: billion dollar opportunity sitting off to the right here that
16:59
Speaker 4: is enabled by neutron. So yes, as a launch business
17:03
Speaker 4: itself great, always going to be lumpy and always going
17:06
Speaker 4: to be difficult, but it really is the enabler to something.
17:09
Speaker 3: Much much larger interesting.
17:11
Speaker 1: So once that breaks even, then what are you thinking
17:13
Speaker 1: in terms of revenue addition for launch and then also
17:16
Speaker 1: for everything else that will go on it.
17:18
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, look, the grand vision here is to
17:22
Speaker 4: build an end to end space company. So you launching
17:27
Speaker 4: and breaking apart in the monopolis is great, and their
17:29
Speaker 4: space system's business continues to grow. But I think, as
17:32
Speaker 4: we've always said, the real opportunity here is to utilize
17:36
Speaker 4: those things to build infrastructure in orbit, and that's where
17:40
Speaker 4: you crack open this three hundred and twenty billion dollar
17:43
Speaker 4: market in applications and services and everything from space. And
17:46
Speaker 4: I think you only need to look as far as
17:48
Speaker 4: Starlink to see what kind of kind of value creation
17:53
Speaker 4: can be made in disruption to an industry when you
17:56
Speaker 4: own the keys to space.
17:58
Speaker 1: You've spoken to me twice now you've mentioned it again today,
18:01
Speaker 1: and we spoke about this last time as well, that
18:02
Speaker 1: neutron breaks up that monopoly that a competitor has.
18:06
Speaker 2: I'm assuming you're talking about SpaceX.
18:08
Speaker 1: You've mentioned Starlink there, and you're not only going to
18:10
Speaker 1: go after SpaceX's launch business, but.
18:13
Speaker 2: You're also going to go after Starlink directly.
18:15
Speaker 4: Well, we don't talk about what application we're going after
18:18
Speaker 4: because it's just too early, you know, and it's kind
18:20
Speaker 4: of irrelevant. I'm a very kind of methodical person. I
18:23
Speaker 4: like to finish one thing before I start the next.
18:25
Speaker 4: And there's no point about, you know, really digging into
18:28
Speaker 4: applications until neutrons flying.
18:31
Speaker 3: That it's it's it's just irrelevant.
18:34
Speaker 4: But looks you have a whole spectrum of things you
18:38
Speaker 4: do in space, and you know, the broadband space vertical
18:45
Speaker 4: is one one shaft of light and a giant spectrum.
18:48
Speaker 4: So I think there's a lot of things to a
18:50
Speaker 4: lot of a lot of opportunities to go after there.
18:52
Speaker 2: When it is flying just quickly on cadence.
18:55
Speaker 1: What licenses if that's the correct term, it may not
18:57
Speaker 1: be in NASA terms, but what sort of approval do
19:00
Speaker 1: you have to be able to fly at its first
19:02
Speaker 1: and second year?
19:03
Speaker 2: Do you need to renew any off?
19:05
Speaker 4: It's no different too to an electron. So you know,
19:07
Speaker 4: every license is launched, every launches is licensed. Now it
19:12
Speaker 4: is slight peculiarity or slight difference from electrons its launched
19:15
Speaker 4: out of the US, So you know, we don't need
19:17
Speaker 4: New Zealand government launch license approval. But you know every
19:20
Speaker 4: vehicle has it's it's required, you know, licenses, and and
19:23
Speaker 4: then of course you have all of the all of
19:25
Speaker 4: the other kind of reglatory things that go go along
19:28
Speaker 4: with with launch vehicles.
19:30
Speaker 1: So if we go back to those maths equations, once
19:34
Speaker 1: it is revenue additional, when neutron is, when could investors
19:39
Speaker 1: see a dividend?
19:41
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, look, I don't think we're where we've
19:44
Speaker 4: we've publicly spoken about that. I mean right now, as
19:47
Speaker 4: a as a kid, saying like it's it's it's all
19:49
Speaker 4: hands to the pump to get to get you know, neutron,
19:52
Speaker 4: neutron to the pad. But you know, the business changes
19:55
Speaker 4: pretty significantly, you know, once we start, once we start
19:58
Speaker 4: flying that vehicle. And you know, if you if you
20:02
Speaker 4: just minus out neutron investment today, then you know the
20:06
Speaker 4: company looks looks very profitable. But you know, we've taken
20:08
Speaker 4: made a conscious decision to to to heavily invest in
20:11
Speaker 4: that product.
20:12
Speaker 1: And in the meantime, you're also going to Mars to
20:15
Speaker 1: retrieve some samples for scientific purposes. Just casually on the side, let's.
20:20
Speaker 4: Be clear here where we are. We are we are
20:23
Speaker 4: studying whether or not we can put together an architecture
20:28
Speaker 4: that NASA thinks is sufficiently viable to to to then
20:32
Speaker 4: go and do so. Where we're we're you know, we're
20:35
Speaker 4: at the early stages of of you know, of that program.
20:38
Speaker 4: So yes, we've been awarded to study contract from from
20:40
Speaker 4: NASA to to retrieve the samples that are sitting on
20:44
Speaker 4: the on the surface of Mars right now and bring
20:46
Speaker 4: them back home to Earth. And you know, I think
20:50
Speaker 4: I think we're uniquely placed for that because if you
20:52
Speaker 4: if you asked around the industry, who's the best of
20:55
Speaker 4: the world of building a super small rockets for launching
20:58
Speaker 4: off planets, it's US. And then there's only two commercial
21:02
Speaker 4: companies that have re entered a capsule and landed it.
21:04
Speaker 3: Safely back on Earth, and one of them is US.
21:07
Speaker 4: So these are like two core elements like launching off
21:10
Speaker 4: another planet with a little rocket and bringing a little
21:12
Speaker 4: thing home and landing it safely. Let alone, you know
21:15
Speaker 4: some of some of the other technologies. And you know
21:18
Speaker 4: who's building mass spacecraft right now.
21:20
Speaker 2: You bought You actually built two of them.
21:22
Speaker 3: Yep.
21:22
Speaker 2: So although there yet to be following you, we're gonna
21:24
Speaker 2: have to wait a year for that.
21:25
Speaker 4: But well yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. But but the point,
21:28
Speaker 4: the point being is like we have really critical key
21:31
Speaker 4: elements that that that enable that mission.
21:35
Speaker 3: So you know, we think whatever, we're going to.
21:37
Speaker 4: Have a good crack at seeing if if we can
21:39
Speaker 4: put something together and make that happen.
21:41
Speaker 1: After this conversation, I don't think you would go and
21:43
Speaker 1: have a crack at something if you didn't think you
21:45
Speaker 1: could execute on it.
21:46
Speaker 3: Well, absolutely not. No, No, I don't know.
21:49
Speaker 4: No, I think I think, yeah, I think I think
21:51
Speaker 4: we'll put something together that that will work. You know
21:54
Speaker 4: that The question is, you know, this big political question
21:57
Speaker 4: about who ends up doing it.
21:59
Speaker 1: This kind of speaks to you call the desegregation. We
22:03
Speaker 1: were talking before about government contracts now going to increasingly
22:07
Speaker 1: private operators, especially in space.
22:09
Speaker 2: It's a real trend, isn't that.
22:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think it's funny.
22:13
Speaker 4: When I first started the company, everybody was talking about
22:15
Speaker 4: the democratization of space, and then now we find ourselves
22:19
Speaker 4: like right in the middle of it, and it's super
22:21
Speaker 4: cool to be a part of that. I mean, you know,
22:23
Speaker 4: governments no longer really apartment sls really invest in launch vehicles,
22:28
Speaker 4: and you know, the space station is retiring in twenty
22:31
Speaker 4: thirty and the replacement for that is commercial. Now we've
22:34
Speaker 4: got commercial science missions and even the Escapade mission. You know,
22:38
Speaker 4: although it's a government mission, it was a commercial entity
22:40
Speaker 4: that built those two spacecraft. So so yeah, the democratization
22:44
Speaker 4: of space is truly happening.
22:47
Speaker 1: Would rocket Land build or apply to build the next
22:50
Speaker 1: International Space Station?
22:53
Speaker 3: Look, that's currently not not on our roadmap.
22:56
Speaker 1: If it ever happens, please give me a call. So
22:59
Speaker 1: feb thank you so much for your time.
23:01
Speaker 3: Appreciate it now.
23:02
Speaker 1: Stay, there's gonna ask a few more questions just about
23:04
Speaker 1: the wallets facility.
23:06
Speaker 2: What are we going to see? How efflick is it?
23:08
Speaker 4: Well, I mean there's a there's a lot, So there's
23:11
Speaker 4: a it's kind of like an iceberg. For whatever concrete
23:14
Speaker 4: you see sticking in the ground, there's like two thirds
23:16
Speaker 4: of that below the ground. So you're going to see,
23:19
Speaker 4: you know, a lot of concrete, a lot of steel,
23:22
Speaker 4: you know, and a lot of a busy site, you know,
23:25
Speaker 4: working together to get that get that pad or operational.
23:28
Speaker 1: Stay tuned for part two.