Rocket Lab CEO：中子号火箭今年首飞时间趋紧，或推迟至2027年

Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio news. Shares of Rocket Lab lower. The company signaling its Neutron rocket could face yet another delay, pushing its bid to challenge SpaceX's Falcon 9 potentially into 2027. It's not all doom and gloom, though. shares still up more than 12% year to date, 74% year-over-year. Joining us now is Rocket Lab founder, president, and CEO, Peter Beck. Peter, thank you so much for joining.

Can you clarify any confusion about Neutron? So, yesterday it seemed like you were pushing back the date of the launch a little bit. Is Neutron still on track to actually launch off its launchpad this year, 2026?

Yeah, I think I think probably your headlines overblown it a little bit. Um, you know, what I did uh did say is that uh you know, it's getting a little bit tighter to get a launch away this year, which is uh you know, just being honest and transparent. Um, but uh you know, it it's a rocket program. Uh they're very very difficult and complex and large programs. Uh but our intention here is to still uh definitely push hard to to go try and get a first flight uh away this year.

But I think the the the real question that should be asking is is uh what about the 10th flight? Because um you know these programs you know obviously first flight is important but flight number 10 is actually really really important because you know that shows that you've you've got into into full sense of you know scale and cadence and and reusability which is which is really you know the the most important thing for the whole program.

I see the word there cadence. Tell us a bit about that how you're thinking about the cadence going forward here and the the viable the viable path to getting there to a regular cadence. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you look at our current current vehicle, Electron, you know, we actually scaled that faster than any other uh you know, rocket in history. So, we went from, you know, to zero to to 50 flights in the shortest time in history.

And and we're on track to, you know, get to 100 flights in in the shortest time in history with that vehicle, too. So, we know a thing or two about, you know, taking a rocket, putting it on the pad, and then uh flying it over and over again. But, you know, Neutron's really important for for a few reasons. Um I think a lot of people focus on uh you know it plugging a hole from and providing competition for a Falcon 9 which which is an important uh important part of its job.

But you know Rocket Lab is an end to-end space company meaning that we build satellites both for ourselves and for other people. And you know with our pending acquisition of of Aridium uh you know we really need our our rocket to launch our own satellites. Um and uh so you know at least 50% of of electrons or sorry neutrons capacity is going to be consumed by ourselves. Obviously, SpaceX was able to raise a humongous amount of cash recently.

Peter, how do you intend to continue to raise cash in order to fund some of these expensive endeavors?

Well, I think we're a little bit different than SpaceX. Um, you know, Elon has has uh very uh very grand um aspirations that require a lot of cash. Um, you know, for us, uh, you know, we we're in the business of of getting into into cash flow positivity as quickly as we can. Um, and if you look at, you know, some of the some of the acquisitions, uh, that that we've done in the past and and about to do, uh, you know, that puts us in that in that realm very very quickly.

So, I think we have a we have a very different sort of profile to to to the, you know, the other two big rocket guys. Um, you know, start off where, you know, I'm certainly not the richest, you know, two two of the richest people in the world are our competitors. So, they have a totally different, uh, you know, cost of capital, and sense of capital. Um we've always always been that rocket company that is uh you know had to be very commercial from day one and uh you know we we're we're about uh we're about building building a good solid book and and and you know a commercial enterprise that's enduring and uh and making money.

I look at the report backlog 2.36 billion with 90 plus launches here. Um how should we look at that? How should investors look at that backlog and at what point does it become something that should maybe raise some concern with investors if if it gets to be a certain size or uh you know it gets to grow bigger and bigger yet?

Yeah. Well, I mean uh you know I think everybody loves a great big backlog and I think in you know between the you know the last quarter and and now we we added nearly a billion dollars of backlog uh you know to to the company. So um but backlog is is a is a great metric but um execution is the true measure and uh you know if you look at the company I think we've established ourselves as you know is is a very strong executors um you know previously and and and throughout history we uh you know we we do what we say we're going to do

you know the idium deal as you say that's pending complete completion it potentially opens the door for directto device uh products and that market how do you see that fairing and particularly against some of your competitors such as SpaceX.

Yeah. So, um, look, I I've I've saying this for many many years and I think it's been proven out um with with evidence from from other companies, but um, you know, the really large space companies of the future are going to look at all a little bit the same. Uh, they're going to have the ability to build satellites at scale, the ability to launch their own satellites with their own rocket, uh, and, uh, and have a bit of a communications or a comm's play.

And, you know, ARM is the entry point for us. It's by no means uh the end point and you know the one of the reasons why we like the Aridium platform so much is that uh you know has a very unique spectrum being an LBAN spectrum that allows you to do uh very unique things and you know Aridium has built an amazing business on the back of safety critical defense critical infrastructure and you know that's something that we'll continue to you know to grow and push.

Um you I don't think you're going to see us uh going head-to-head in the in the broadband market. I think that's very well served and a tough place to be, but uh but I think there's there's a you know a tremendous opportunity in in some of these uh more um discreet and unique areas of of the comm's market.

Peter, talk to us about the Kepler deal which you announced yesterday, this deal with Kepler Communications purchasing a dedicated launch of Neutron for no earlier than than 2028. How important is that to to you and the business? Well, it's funny because um you know, I think I think naturally a lot of people um would expect that we just should you know, sell all of the rockets that we have for for for eternity. And if we were just a rocket company, that would be a that would be a great assumption.

But um you know, we we have to assure that um we have rockets left uh in, you know, in in production and and available to launch for our own aspirations. uh also for uh you know some of our defense customers who um uh you know who who need assured access to space and you know right now I I've never seen the rocket industry and and launch so constrained. So for us uh you know we are extremely selective about who we uh we we give up um this very valuable capacity to uh on on the neutron rocket.

So um you know it was great to great to have the Kepler guys on uh you know on contract. you know, we've known that team for a very long time. Um, and uh, but you know, it is it is a it is a a very uh, very kind of constrained environment right now that we have to uh, navigate carefully.

Peter, what's the detailed plan for getting to cash flow positive? Is it just a matter of time?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean neutron uh you know after we have the first flight flight of neutron and we we uh fl

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