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Sir Peter Joseph Beck KNZM is a New Zealand entrepreneur and founder of Rocket Lab, an aerospace manufacturer and launch service provider. Before founding Rocket Lab, Beck worked in various occupations and built rocket-powered contraptions.
Sir Peter Beck | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Beck in 2024 | |
| Born | 1976 or 1977 (age 47–48)[1] Invercargill, New Zealand |
| Nationality | New Zealand |
| Title | CEO and CTO of Rocket Lab |
| Children | 2[2] |
| Father | Russell Beck |
Beck grew up in Invercargill, New Zealand,[3] with two brothers: Andrew and John. His father, Russell Beck, was a museum and art gallery director and gemologist,[4] and his mother was a teacher.[5] As a teenager, he spent time turbocharging an old Mini and launching water rockets.[2] Beck did not attend university.[1]
In 1995, Beck became a tool-and-die-maker apprentice at company Fisher & Paykel. While working there, he taught himself and used the company workshop to experiment with rockets and propellants. Using these tools and materials, he created a rocket bike, rocket-attached scooter, and a jet pack. Later, Beck moved into product design department and bought a cruise missile engine from the United States. It was while he was working at Fisher & Paykel that he met his wife, Kerryn Morris, also a designer.[2] He then worked in New Plymouth as a project engineer on a yacht.[6]
He later worked at Industrial Research Limited between 2001 and 2006,[2] working on smart materials, composites and superconductors.[6] While working there, he met Stephen Tindall, who later became an early investor at Rocket Lab.[7] While his wife worked as an engineer in the United States, Beck traveled to Minnesota and met with a rocketeer that he had contacted beforehand. After this travel, he founded Rocket Lab.[6]
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While contacting potential investors, Beck met New Zealand internet entrepreneur Mark Rocket, later becoming a key seed investor to Rocket Lab.[2] Among other early investors into Rocket Lab was Stephen Tindall, Vinod Khosla, and the New Zealand Government.[7] Three years later, in November 2009, Rocket Lab successfully launched the multi-stage rocket Ātea-1, becoming the first private company in the Southern Hemisphere to reach space.[2]
Around 2013, Rocket Lab moved its registration from New Zealand to the United States, and opened headquarters in Huntington Beach, California.[2] The company then developed and first launched the Electron rocket unsuccessfully in May 2017.[8] The rocket's first successful launch happened in January 2018, deploying two CubeSats and the Humanity Star.[9] In May 2022, the company attempted to recover an Electron booster with partial success.[10] As of October 2023, the company has successfully launched in total 37 similar missions out of 41 attempts.[11] As of May 2024, Rocket Lab had attempted 47 launches, with 43 being successful.[citation needed]
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In 2015, Beck received the New Zealander of the Year Award in the Innovator of the Year category.[12] In 2019, he was appointed as an adjunct professor for the University of Auckland.[13] Both Rocket Lab and Beck were awarded the Pickering Medal by the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2020.[14]
In 2023, Rocket Lab and Peter Beck were featured in Ashlee Vance's new book, "When the Heavens went for sale". In 2024, a documentary called "Wild Wild Space" was released by HBO, portraying the rivalry between two companies, Astra and Rocket Lab, and their respective founders, Chris Kemp and Peter Beck.[citation needed]
In the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours, Beck was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the aerospace industry, business and education.[15]
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