Many companies in the space industry have seen operations grind to a crawl in the past two months because of the coronavirus crisis, a problem compounded by frozen venture capital that used to be readily available.
Worse, Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck told CNBC that this is only the “early days” of the crisis for an industry that saw a boom time over the past decade. While he remains hopeful that some creative and well-funded companies may continue pushing forward, Beck warned that this “is going to be a really challenging time.”
“This is a year-and-a-half slog, maybe even longer,” Beck said.
Beck is one of the most experienced leaders among the latest generation of space ventures, having built Rocket Lab into a multifaceted company. Begun in 2006, the company is backed by a host a VC firms and, in recent years, has grown its valuation to more than $1.2 billion. It’s based in Long Beach, California but was founded by Beck in New Zealand.
Rocket Lab has launched its Electron rocket to space 11 times from its New Zealand launchpad, since first reaching orbit in January 2018, and is closing in on the first mission from its second launchpad in Virginia later this year. Additionally, the company last year expanded into the spacecraft building business itself with its Photon satellite platform. Last week, it closed its acquisition of Canadian space systems company Sinclair Interplanetary, which builds satellite hardware.
To top it all off, Rocket Lab recently passed key milestones in developing a system to reuse its rockets — by snagging them out of the sky using parachutes and a helicopter.
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