NASA Denied Peter Beck An Internship 20 Years Ago So He Drew A Logo On A Napkin And Launched Rocket Lab — Now It's A $15B Company

In 2006, a young rocket enthusiast from New Zealand traveled to the United States to show off his experiments to NASA. He was hoping to walk away with an internship, but he was instead escorted off the premises.

That was all the motivation he needed. He quickly returned home, drew a logo on a napkin and began building his own space company.

Changing Trajectory: Rocket Lab Corp RKLB founder and CEO Peter Beck started his own rocket company after NASA and other companies like Boeing Co BA wouldn't give him a chance to pursue his dreams, per CNBC. Today, his end-to-end space company has multiple contracts with NASA and is worth over $15 billion. 

"On the face of it, here’s a foreign national turning up to an Air Force base asking a whole bunch of questions about rockets — that doesn’t look good," Beck told CNBC's Make It last year.

It might have been for the best, as few companies were building what he envisioned: a lightweight suborbital rocket capable of launching satellites.

Beck founded Rocket Lab in 2006, and three years later, it became the first private company in the Southern Hemisphere to reach space, but the journey wasn't easy.

Shortly after starting the company, Beck attempted to raise $5 million from Silicon Valley investors, which he described as one of his biggest challenges. At the time, the only other rocket startup was Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which was itself considered a long shot.

"A rocket startup from someone living in New Zealand was even more absurd," Beck said. 

The Rocket Lab CEO ended up having to raise small amounts of funding from several different places, but it helped to shape the startup. When you see opportunities, you have to poke your head out but not commit too deeply, he said: "Otherwise, you’ll get your head cut off."

Sometimes it's ok to take big risks and other times it's better to be safe and methodical, Beck said, noting without flawless execution, the consequences can be devastating.

Check This Out: Elon Musk’s SpaceX Suffers Major Setback As Starship Rocket Explodes In Static Fire Test

Beck used to get sick on every launch day in the early stages. Although he's beyond that now, he feels it's still hard to enjoy them. 

"There’s just so much invested in each launch. So much responsibility," he said. 

Getting the company's first rocket into orbit was one of the easiest parts because everyone's attention was on that one rocket launch. Now the company rolls a new rocket off its production line every couple of weeks, he said. 

"Just when you think things are going good, you’re reminded of how hard this business really is. Every time that you take too much of a breath, you’ll be humbled very quickly," Beck said. 

Rocket Lab reached the 50-launch milestone of its Electron rocket last year, just seven years after Electron first entered service. The company has now launched Electron 66 total times, and has demand for over 20 launches in 2025 alone. Rocket Lab is expected to debut its new medium-lift reusable rocket Neutron later this year.

Rocket Lab reported first-quarter revenue of $122.57 million last month and guided for second-quarter revenue in the range of $130 million to $140 million versus analyst estimates of $136.82 million. Rocket Lab is also thought to be one of the companies being considered for the Trump administration’s Golden Dome missile defense system.

Read Next: 

• Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Just Launched 27 More Satellites — Escalating Race With Elon Musk’s Starlink

This story is part of a series of features on the subject of success, Benzinga Inspire. Some elements of this story were previously reported by Benzinga and it has been updated.

Photo: courtesy of Rocket Lab.