Space mystery inspired New Zealand rocket man’s trip to Nasdaq

WELLINGTON, Aug.26 (Reuters) – New Zealand entrepreneur Peter Beck has said his space company Rocket Lab (RKLB.O) is the result of an ongoing quest for signs of life outside of earth, as the startup took a new step with a listing on Nasdaq on Thursday.

The small satellite launch company, often compared to SpaceX by Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk, listed on the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) Thursday with a market cap of around $ 4.4 billion.

Rocket Lab agreed in March to go public through a merger with a blank check firm backed by private equity firm Vector Capital, the latest in a series of space company announcements involving Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPAC). Read more

“For me personally, the biggest question I can possibly answer in my life, and the biggest question for everyone on earth really comes down to whether we are the only life in the universe or not,” said Beck told Reuters from New Zealand after the announcement. .

Growing up in Invercargill, a town near the southern tip of New Zealand’s South Island, he first became interested in space when his father pointed to the stars and said he ‘there might be someone watching him from there.

“It was the most mind-blowing moment of my young life. So I vowed that if ever I had the chance to answer the question, which is fundamentally important to our way of thinking, I would have a crack. glad to have this opportunity. We have a spaceship, launch pads and the team to do it. “

Rocket Lab was selected this year to develop a spacecraft for a NASA mission to Mars. The company is also leading a private mission to Venus in 2023, working with a leading scientific team that last year discovered a gas called Phosphine in the clouds of Venus.

“This is a life search mission, this is a high risk mission and the very first private mission to another planet,” Beck said.

Rocket Lab, whose backers include defense giant Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N), has launched more than 100 satellites into space since 2006.

The company’s Electron launcher became the second most frequently launched US rocket each year and delivered 105 satellites into orbit for private and public sector organizations.

Beck said that while there are many competitors with more funding and time, Musk’s Space X and Rocket Lab are the only ones with regular commercial space missions.

Rocket Lab is also considering other acquisitions to help grow its space transportation and space systems business. In April of last year, it acquired the Canadian company Sinclair Interplanetary.

After initially rising to $ 11.60 when it debuted on the Nasdaq, the company’s shares fell almost 10% to $ 10.43. New shares were issued at US $ 10.00 each.

But Beck rejected the first drop in the share price: “We’re here for the long haul.”

Reporting by Praveen Menon; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.