Peter Beck
Founder, President and CEO of Rocket Lab, the aerospace company he founded in 2006 that develops and launches rockets, satellites, and spacecraft.
Rocket Lab Buys Iridium to Enter the Space Applications Market
John Coogan frames Rocket Lab’s $8 billion agreement to buy Iridium as a bid to move beyond launch and into the space applications business SpaceX has already defined: spectrum, operating satellites, customers and recurring connectivity revenue. Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s chief executive, makes the same case in the company’s announcement, arguing that Iridium gives Rocket Lab the scarce assets needed to become a vertically integrated space operator rather than just a launch and spacecraft supplier. The rest of the discussion tests that stack-ownership logic against messier cases, from Comcast unwinding content and connectivity to Meta’s uncertain prediction-market ambitions.
Rocket Lab’s $8 Billion Iridium Deal Adds Spectrum and Services
Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck told Bloomberg that the company’s planned $8bn acquisition of Iridium is meant to add the missing application layer to its launch and spacecraft manufacturing businesses. Beck argued that Iridium’s L-band spectrum, global network and profitable safety-critical communications business give Rocket Lab a faster and lower-risk path into space-based services than building a constellation from scratch, while vertical integration could change the economics of future satellite communications plans.