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. It is striking that balance – if you spend too much time on one side, like analysis, it will take years and years and years to build anything. If you spend too much on the other side, in testing, and you just keep blowing stuff up, you don’t move forward. It’s finding that middle ground where there’s an optimum point and you get the maximum development.
Since Rocket Lab’s inception, can you pinpoint a make-or-break moment for the company?
Esta historia es de la edición Issue 105 de All About Space.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición Issue 105 de All About Space.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
MYSTERIES OF THE UNI WHERE ARE ALL THE SPIRAL GALAXIES?
There are far fewer spiral galaxies than elliptical ones in the Supergalactic Plane, and scientists are keen to discover why
ZOMBIE STARS
+10 OTHER TERRIFYING SPACE OBJECTS
HOW TO BEAT LIGHT POLLUTION
Thought it was impossible to observe the wonders of the night sky from towns and cities? Think again. Follow our tips and tricks on successfully observing through sky glow
15 STUNNING STAR CLUSTERS
These beautiful stellar groupings are spattered across the cosmos
Eileen Collins "It was a difficult mission...we were the first to see Mir"
Having served as both the first female pilot and first female commander of NASA's Space Shuttle, Collins boosted the involvement of women in space exploration to a whole new level
MARS LEAKS FASTER WHEN IT'S CLOSER TO THE SUN
The Red Planet has lost enough water to space to form a global ocean hundreds of kilometres deep
FUTURE TECH KANKOH-MARU
This ambitious reusable spacecraft will be capable of taking 50 people to and from orbit
THE FINAL FRONTIER
Beyond the reach of the Sun is a fascinating region of the cosmos that were only just beginning to explore
A long-lost moon could explain Mars' weird shape and extreme terrain
A long-lost moon could explain why Mars is so different from the other rocky planets in the Solar System. Today Mars has two tiny moons.
A sprinkling of cosmic dust may have helped kick-start life on Earth
Cosmic dust may have helped kick-start life on Earth. New findings challenge a widely held assumption that this wasn't a plausible explanation.