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peter beck

Photon by Rocket Lab will Save Millions of Dollars of its Customers on Satellite Manufacturing

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The small satellite launcher Rocket Lab has unveiled ‘Photon’, a circular satellite platform, at the 35th Space Symposium held in Colorado Springs on Monday, which according to the company will help people reach to the orbit faster and save millions of money.

Rocket Lab is one of the private leaders in the launch and satellite services, and now the company is trying to get its hold on the complete satellite manufacturing solutions for its customers.

rocket lab photon
Image Source: climate.nasa.gov

With Photon, the company has brought a fully customizable satellite that can be modified according to the need of the client, and they do not have to build whole satellite hardware for their Low Earth Orbit missions, like technology demonstration or hosted payload. Photon will help create satellites that will be launched to the orbit on Rocket Lab’s upper stage of the Electron rocket.

In general, even if the satellite companies want to test or launch a satellite, or send delicate sensors or cameras to space, they have to create their own hardware spending millions of dollars, but now with Photon, the companies will get new option to cut the cost as well as reduce the risk.

Peter Beck, the CEO of Rocket Lab, said in a statement, “Launch was the first bit that we needed to solve, but it always seemed crazy to me that the rocket builder did not also build the hardware for a satellite. Photon means satellite companies don’t need to invest millions of dollars in bringing together a team and manufacturing complex space hardware.”

Photon’s design is based on the successfully-flown kick stage, that was used in four out of five Electron launches. Photon has got the GPS support, a flight computer, a 3D-printed Curie engine and more. It has been equipped with propulsion, providing it with the capability of staying in the orbit for five years by adjusting with outer conditions like the altitude. The satellite can weigh up to 374 pounds (170 kilograms).

According to Beck, Photon is a complete satellite solution, that will help the customers to drop the coordination phase between different companies during the manufacturing of satellite, and Rocket Lab will be responsible for most of the work.

Peter Beck : The Rocket Man from New Zealand

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There has always been a debate between people about the need of education to get successful in life. Some are who really stress over completing the education to achieve the goals, and some are who can’t wait to get to their dreams for so long so that they just skip the higher education. But in the success story of this Kiwi startup entrepreneur, Peter Beck, the case was a bit different.

Beck, who was a sharp student, had to quit education after high school, as there was no such curricular course that could lead him to his targets. This engineer from New Zealand is just not one of the best visionary rocket scientists but also a skilled businessman, who knows how to sell his idea to the right people.

Early Life

Beck was born and brought up in Invercargill, New Zealand, to a gemologist father and a teacher mother. As a teen, he became interested in machines and rockets, as his family was also in love with machines. While growing up, he decided that he wants to create rockets and satellite.

peter beck
Image Source: spaceflightnow.com

According to one of his interviews, one day the career counsellor from his high school administration called his parents up and told them that the school did not have any courses that could fit to help Beck achieve his dreams, rather his goals were “absurdly unachievable”.

Career

Since it was clear that there was no relevant educational course for Beck in school, just after finishing high school, Beck moved to East Tamaki, New Zealand, where he joined Fisher & Paykel for an apprenticeship, at the age of 17. He not only became familiar with the top of the line machinery and materials there but also kept on experimenting with his mini rockets at the workshops.

In 2001, he started working at the Industrial Research (now Callaghan Innovation). This was the place where he met one of the future investors of Rocket Lab, Stephen Tindall.

Founding Rocket Lab

His passion for rockets led him to work hard and found his start-up company Rocket Lab, in 2006. As the name suggests, the company was dedicated to building rockets and satellites. The company received its seed funding from New Zealander internet entrepreneur, Mark Rocket. Beck became the CEO and the CTO of the company and appointed Mark Rocket as its co-director.

It was in 2009 when Beck successfully launched the company’s first suborbital sounding rocket, named ?tea, becoming the first private company in the Southern Hemisphere to reach space.

In 2010, Rocket Lab received a contract from the U.S. government, under which, the company had to study a low-cost space launcher to place CubeSats into orbit. The contract was under NASA, meaning that the Rocket Lab could use all its resources as per the requirement.

In 2013, Beck entered the Silicon Valley, to raise funding for Rocket Lab’s next big project, a two-stage launch vehicle, the Electron. Beck had a time of three weeks, and he knew to whom pitch for the investment. Rather than going to every other venture capitalist, he focussed on the ones who had already invested in such projects and had known about it. Finally, he managed to secure A-round funding from Khosla Ventures, the venture capitalists, who have already invested in a few so projects.

The first commercial launch of Electron occurred on 11 November 2018, from Mahia Peninsula. It carried satellites for Spire Global, GeoOptics, a CubeSat built by high school students, and a prototype of a drag sail to the orbit.

The company has received funds worth $25m from the New Zealand government over the past few years. But still, the company has got more investments from the Silicon Valley companies including Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Data Collective, Promus Ventures, Lockheed Martin and Stephen Tindall’s K1W1, making it legally a U.S. company.

Personal Life

Beck is married and has two children. His wife is also an engineer.

Royal Aeronautical Society, awarded Beck the Meritorious Medal for service of an exceptional nature to New Zealand aviation and a Cooper Medal. In 2014, he was awarded the Innovation in Design and Engineering Award at the NZ Innovators Awards. In 2016, he was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year.