Rocket Lab CEO: The space industry is entering at least 'a year and a half slog' due to coronavirus

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Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck told CNBC that the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the space industry is in 'early days,' as he expects a tough environment for at least 18 more months.

With investment in pre-IPO space companies cooled off, Beck believes those on the hunt for capital should consider banding together to survive.

funding for corporate space partners. NASA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Defense Innovation Unit are a few government agencies that are accelerating funding to space companies during the crisis. While Beck acknowledged that he doesn't "have the golden solution" for how government can further aid the space economy, he said the industry has "to start talking about it to try and figure a way through.

"Don't just do stuff for the sake of doing stuff and keeping an industry alive. Do things that do that but at the same time build capabilities that we've never had before," Beck said. "Ultimately, this is an opportunity for nation building." Beck thinks any government stimulus for space should go "to the highest node," with funds prioritized for spacecraft. Rocket Lab, its competitors and its supply chain "will be healthy as long as there are spacecraft to build," he said. "Then everybody's happy.

"The Sinclair acquisition for us was born out of the fact that the supply chain for those components is incredibly fragile. It helped secure a supply chain of critical parts," Beck said. especially in the final few months of the bull market earlier this year. But Beck said Virgin Galactic going public was "a really interesting thermometer" that showed how much investor interest exists for space assets.Virgin Galactic's spacecraft Unity fires its rocket engine and heads to space on Feb. 22, 2019.But he noted that Virgin Galactic is operating without significant revenue, as the company has yet to begin flying paying passengers to space regularly.

 

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In the article Beck is quoted as saying “What are things that have really good benefits for the country?” As Beck is not a US citizen, I doubt that he cares about 'the country' at all. His only goal is to keep the stream of revenue coming in for his company.

Nadrobi

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