1
00:00:00,959 --> 00:00:02,544
[TV static drones]

2
00:00:02,544 --> 00:00:04,963
[bright tone]

3
00:00:23,314 --> 00:00:24,983
I do need to warn you
of something.

4
00:00:24,983 --> 00:00:27,318
I actually don't have
a valid driver's license,

5
00:00:27,318 --> 00:00:28,987
and the car is not registered,

6
00:00:28,987 --> 00:00:31,031
and they canceled
my insurance,

7
00:00:31,031 --> 00:00:33,033
so this is a little risky.

8
00:00:33,033 --> 00:00:35,994
Most people are confused
when you do illegal things,

9
00:00:35,994 --> 00:00:39,456
so they just kind of sit there,
and they don't move.

10
00:00:39,456 --> 00:00:41,916
But we have
this green arrow...

11
00:00:41,916 --> 00:00:44,794
[engine revving]

12
00:00:44,794 --> 00:00:48,965
Followed by this green arrow...

13
00:00:48,965 --> 00:00:53,345
followed by this green light.

14
00:00:53,345 --> 00:00:56,473
[engine revving]

15
00:00:56,473 --> 00:00:58,475
One of the reasons
why we're in a car right now

16
00:00:58,475 --> 00:01:00,060
and not having a glass of wine

17
00:01:00,060 --> 00:01:01,478
with a whole bunch
of fun people

18
00:01:01,478 --> 00:01:02,604
is because I am trying to hire

19
00:01:02,604 --> 00:01:04,481
one of the cofounders
of SpaceX

20
00:01:04,481 --> 00:01:06,066
and create a company
that will succeed

21
00:01:06,066 --> 00:01:10,320
beyond the wildest dreams
of the other companies

22
00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:12,489
that they used to work for.

23
00:01:12,489 --> 00:01:16,117
<i>[sweeping music]</i>

24
00:01:16,117 --> 00:01:18,161
<i>If we get good at this,</i>

25
00:01:18,161 --> 00:01:21,373
<i>we'll change the way
people think about space.</i>

26
00:01:21,373 --> 00:01:24,876
<i>Five, four, three,</i>

27
00:01:24,876 --> 00:01:27,671
two, one.

28
00:01:27,671 --> 00:01:30,173
[rocket whooshing]

29
00:01:30,173 --> 00:01:31,800
<i>We have liftoff.</i>

30
00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:35,011
[all cheering]

31
00:01:35,011 --> 00:01:36,596
Yeah!

32
00:01:36,596 --> 00:01:37,931
Fuck, yeah.

33
00:01:37,931 --> 00:01:41,184
<i>♪ ♪</i>

34
00:01:41,184 --> 00:01:45,063
[alarm blaring]

35
00:01:45,063 --> 00:01:48,400
Caution on 5.

36
00:01:48,400 --> 00:01:50,819
[beeping]

37
00:01:56,825 --> 00:01:58,576
Shit.

38
00:01:58,576 --> 00:02:01,413
<i>You've heard about
the billionaire space race.</i>

39
00:02:01,413 --> 00:02:03,206
<i>This isn't that movie.</i>

40
00:02:03,206 --> 00:02:06,084
<i>[mid-tempo music]</i>

41
00:02:06,084 --> 00:02:07,752
<i>♪ ♪</i>

42
00:02:07,752 --> 00:02:09,587
<i>What a lot of people
don't realize</i>

43
00:02:09,587 --> 00:02:12,924
<i>is that we're in the midst
of a revolution in space.</i>

44
00:02:15,635 --> 00:02:17,595
<i>It's like the Wild West.</i>

45
00:02:17,595 --> 00:02:20,765
<i>It's a quest for power,
a celestial land grab</i>

46
00:02:20,765 --> 00:02:22,934
<i>that's taking place
in the sliver of space</i>

47
00:02:22,934 --> 00:02:26,730
<i>just over our heads
called low Earth orbit.</i>

48
00:02:26,730 --> 00:02:29,733
<i>♪ ♪</i>

49
00:02:29,733 --> 00:02:31,860
<i>This is a film
about powerful satellites</i>

50
00:02:31,860 --> 00:02:35,030
<i>and the rockets
that carry them into orbit.</i>

51
00:02:35,030 --> 00:02:37,741
<i>And in short order,
the fabric of the modern world</i>

52
00:02:37,741 --> 00:02:39,868
<i>will be controlled
by a select few.</i>

53
00:02:39,868 --> 00:02:42,996
<i>♪ ♪</i>

54
00:02:42,996 --> 00:02:45,957
<i>This isn't your usual
cast of characters.</i>

55
00:02:45,957 --> 00:02:49,419
<i>We have a slick
Silicon Valley entrepreneur,</i>

56
00:02:49,419 --> 00:02:51,254
<i>a genius engineer,</i>

57
00:02:51,254 --> 00:02:54,591
<i>and a space hippie
trying to save the world.</i>

58
00:02:56,343 --> 00:02:58,261
<i>No one knows
if any of this will work</i>

59
00:02:58,261 --> 00:03:00,305
<i>or where any of this is going.</i>

60
00:03:00,305 --> 00:03:03,558
<i>But there is a lot of money
to be made up there.</i>

61
00:03:07,020 --> 00:03:08,855
<i>Nothing's riding on this,</i>

62
00:03:08,855 --> 00:03:11,983
<i>except things like
our right to privacy</i>

63
00:03:11,983 --> 00:03:15,487
<i>and the power of the world
falling into the wrong hands.</i>

64
00:03:17,822 --> 00:03:20,950
<i>And whoever controls space</i>

65
00:03:20,950 --> 00:03:24,829
<i>may very well control
the future of humanity.</i>

66
00:03:33,505 --> 00:03:37,050
<i>[soft dramatic music]</i>

67
00:03:37,050 --> 00:03:44,057
<i>♪ ♪</i>

68
00:03:44,057 --> 00:03:45,558
<i>My name is Chris Kemp.</i>

69
00:03:45,558 --> 00:03:49,145
I am the cofounder and CEO
of Astra Space,

70
00:03:49,145 --> 00:03:52,023
and most people
don't know that

71
00:03:52,023 --> 00:03:54,526
<i>because we're very quiet
about what we're doing.</i>

72
00:03:58,029 --> 00:04:00,740
So I run
a secret rocket company.

73
00:04:02,534 --> 00:04:06,079
<i>Astra's mission statement
is simply daily launch.</i>

74
00:04:06,079 --> 00:04:08,665
<i>What we're trying to do
is very quietly build NASA</i>

75
00:04:08,665 --> 00:04:13,378
<i>at 1/1,000,000 the budget,
in 1/100 time,</i>

76
00:04:13,378 --> 00:04:15,255
<i>here in Silicon Valley.</i>

77
00:04:15,255 --> 00:04:16,881
The city actually came by,
and they said,

78
00:04:16,881 --> 00:04:18,758
"You can't put up
a razor-wire fence."

79
00:04:18,758 --> 00:04:20,218
- Really?
- Yeah. And--

80
00:04:20,218 --> 00:04:22,470
- So we doubled down?
- I totally doubled down.

81
00:04:22,470 --> 00:04:23,888
I put, like,
razor wire everywhere.

82
00:04:23,888 --> 00:04:25,682
And they're like,
"You can't do this."

83
00:04:25,682 --> 00:04:27,851
I'm like, "North Korea."
They're like, "What?"

84
00:04:27,851 --> 00:04:29,644
And I'm like, "North Korea."

85
00:04:29,644 --> 00:04:33,690
Chris is this living
embodiment of Silicon Val--

86
00:04:33,690 --> 00:04:37,485
he's Silicon Valley brought
to life in a human form.

87
00:04:37,485 --> 00:04:38,862
How are you?

88
00:04:38,862 --> 00:04:42,198
<i>He is very driven.</i>

89
00:04:42,198 --> 00:04:44,200
You're the founders
and the CEOs of businesses

90
00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:45,827
that are leading
the revolution.

91
00:04:45,827 --> 00:04:47,704
Fantastic.
[all cheering]

92
00:04:47,704 --> 00:04:49,664
<i>Yes, he wants to get
a rocket to space.</i>

93
00:04:49,664 --> 00:04:51,708
<i>But he wants to be seen
as a success,</i>

94
00:04:51,708 --> 00:04:55,086
and he wants the world
to see him as a success

95
00:04:55,086 --> 00:04:58,548
and will stop at almost nothing
to make that happen.

96
00:04:58,548 --> 00:05:02,344
<i>♪ ♪</i>

97
00:05:02,344 --> 00:05:04,763
<i>I've been a longtime
technology journalist.</i>

98
00:05:04,763 --> 00:05:06,097
<i>Worked at
"The New York Times,"</i>

99
00:05:06,097 --> 00:05:07,599
<i>"The Economist."</i>

100
00:05:07,599 --> 00:05:11,019
<i>Stumbled into space
just by reporting on SpaceX.</i>

101
00:05:11,019 --> 00:05:14,397
<i>At the time, people thought
Elon was just some crazy kid</i>

102
00:05:14,397 --> 00:05:16,941
<i>who'd sold his tech company
for millions of dollars</i>

103
00:05:16,941 --> 00:05:19,235
<i>so he could go build a rocket.</i>

104
00:05:19,235 --> 00:05:21,154
How much did you know
about the space business

105
00:05:21,154 --> 00:05:23,948
before you got into it?
- Not very much.

106
00:05:23,948 --> 00:05:27,535
<i>Pretty much everyone thought
SpaceX was a total joke.</i>

107
00:05:27,535 --> 00:05:30,955
<i>Three, two, one.</i>

108
00:05:30,955 --> 00:05:33,750
<i>And liftoff.</i>

109
00:05:33,750 --> 00:05:36,628
<i>An American company blasts
off into the history books.</i>

110
00:05:36,628 --> 00:05:38,797
<i>SpaceX has launched
the first privately funded</i>

111
00:05:38,797 --> 00:05:41,675
<i>rocket into space.</i>

112
00:05:41,675 --> 00:05:43,134
<i>For Elon, it was like,</i>

113
00:05:43,134 --> 00:05:45,178
<i>"Let's turn space
into a business.</i>

114
00:05:45,178 --> 00:05:47,430
<i>"I'm going to build hundreds
and hundreds of rockets</i>

115
00:05:47,430 --> 00:05:49,974
<i>"and thousands and thousands
of satellites</i>

116
00:05:49,974 --> 00:05:53,687
<i>and make this
into a real industry."</i>

117
00:05:53,687 --> 00:05:56,731
<i>So I end up writing
the first biography on Elon.</i>

118
00:05:56,731 --> 00:05:59,150
- How'd he like the book?
- How did he like the book?

119
00:05:59,150 --> 00:06:01,820
He said he was gonna,
like, destroy my life.

120
00:06:01,820 --> 00:06:04,781
[laughs]

121
00:06:04,781 --> 00:06:06,324
But we talk now.

122
00:06:08,868 --> 00:06:11,621
<i>Right after I finished
the book, I'm looking around.</i>

123
00:06:11,621 --> 00:06:13,790
I realize
there's a lot of people

124
00:06:13,790 --> 00:06:17,043
that want to be like Elon Musk
all of a sudden.

125
00:06:17,043 --> 00:06:20,588
This kicks off
this worldwide revolution

126
00:06:20,588 --> 00:06:22,632
in space.

127
00:06:22,632 --> 00:06:27,470
<i>This was capitalist investors,
welders from Texas,</i>

128
00:06:27,470 --> 00:06:30,849
<i>military people, like,
dudes with mohawks,</i>

129
00:06:30,849 --> 00:06:34,019
not whatever most people's
image of space was.

130
00:06:36,521 --> 00:06:40,525
The era of governments
controlling this stuff is over.

131
00:06:40,525 --> 00:06:42,819
<i>Companies control this.</i>

132
00:06:42,819 --> 00:06:45,697
<i>Governments, regulators
are not equipped</i>

133
00:06:45,697 --> 00:06:48,700
<i>to deal with the speed
at which things are going.</i>

134
00:06:50,076 --> 00:06:51,786
<i>There's not a lot
of regulation,</i>

135
00:06:51,786 --> 00:06:53,538
<i>not a lot of laws,
not a lot of, you know,</i>

136
00:06:53,538 --> 00:06:55,457
governance that exists there.

137
00:06:55,457 --> 00:06:57,792
And I think that's
the opportunity right now,

138
00:06:57,792 --> 00:06:59,377
because if you can
get there first,

139
00:06:59,377 --> 00:07:01,379
you can have
a seat at the table

140
00:07:01,379 --> 00:07:04,382
at defining the laws
that will govern space.

141
00:07:04,382 --> 00:07:06,718
<i>Whoever gets
the rocket there first,</i>

142
00:07:06,718 --> 00:07:10,555
whoever fills the sky
with satellites first wins.

143
00:07:10,555 --> 00:07:12,098
<i>It's a race.</i>

144
00:07:14,601 --> 00:07:16,144
<i>There's
a big question about,</i>

145
00:07:16,144 --> 00:07:21,191
how many small rocket providers
can be profitable?

146
00:07:21,191 --> 00:07:23,651
<i>The most prominent one,
of course,</i>

147
00:07:23,651 --> 00:07:27,322
<i>is New Zealand's Rocket Lab,
led by Peter Beck.</i>

148
00:07:35,747 --> 00:07:37,457
[device beeps]

149
00:07:41,503 --> 00:07:43,380
These are some engines
that have just come

150
00:07:43,380 --> 00:07:45,465
off the 3D printer.

151
00:07:45,465 --> 00:07:47,092
Yeah, it's pretty cool, eh?

152
00:07:47,092 --> 00:07:50,303
This is an electron launch
vehicle.

153
00:07:50,303 --> 00:07:51,846
This is obviously the hot end.

154
00:07:51,846 --> 00:07:53,765
These are all
the Rutherford engines.

155
00:07:53,765 --> 00:07:55,642
All gimbal around.

156
00:07:55,642 --> 00:07:59,354
But you should get your camera
here to, like, see the--

157
00:07:59,354 --> 00:08:01,356
Even though you're in the guts
of the rocket here,

158
00:08:01,356 --> 00:08:03,525
I think it's important
to point this out.

159
00:08:03,525 --> 00:08:05,610
As you'll see, these cable ties

160
00:08:05,610 --> 00:08:07,696
are all equally spaced,
you know?

161
00:08:07,696 --> 00:08:09,739
All of the nibs
are pointing up.

162
00:08:09,739 --> 00:08:12,200
The margin for error here
is zero.

163
00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:14,160
We often get accused
of building Ferraris.

164
00:08:14,160 --> 00:08:16,121
But...

165
00:08:16,121 --> 00:08:18,581
you know...

166
00:08:18,581 --> 00:08:22,293
if it falls out of the sky,
at least it's beautiful.

167
00:08:22,293 --> 00:08:25,714
<i>[whirring]</i>

168
00:08:25,714 --> 00:08:29,342
<i>We are doing something that
is historic for New Zealand.</i>

169
00:08:29,342 --> 00:08:31,136
All right,
everybody get down.

170
00:08:31,136 --> 00:08:33,972
Three, two, one.

171
00:08:33,972 --> 00:08:35,473
[hissing]

172
00:08:35,473 --> 00:08:37,809
Off top!

173
00:08:37,809 --> 00:08:39,477
[motor cranking]

174
00:08:39,477 --> 00:08:42,272
That's what you call
a hard start, everybody.

175
00:08:42,272 --> 00:08:44,149
<i>I battled with,
for many, many years,</i>

176
00:08:44,149 --> 00:08:47,944
the stigma of, like,
a crazy guy

177
00:08:47,944 --> 00:08:49,946
building rockets
in New Zealand.

178
00:08:49,946 --> 00:08:53,324
<i>You know, I started
Rocket Lab in 2006.</i>

179
00:08:53,324 --> 00:08:55,326
To be brutally honest
with you, if you asked me

180
00:08:55,326 --> 00:08:58,288
who Elon Musk was,
I wouldn't have had a clue.

181
00:08:58,288 --> 00:09:01,291
<i>You could not have
a more unlikely background</i>

182
00:09:01,291 --> 00:09:04,419
<i>for somebody starting
a rocket company...</i>

183
00:09:04,419 --> 00:09:05,670
<i>a kid who grew up,</i>

184
00:09:05,670 --> 00:09:07,630
<i>the southernmost point
of New Zealand.</i>

185
00:09:07,630 --> 00:09:09,883
<i>The next stop is Antarctica.</i>

186
00:09:09,883 --> 00:09:13,011
There's really
hardly anything there.

187
00:09:13,011 --> 00:09:14,637
<i>In the world
of commercial space,</i>

188
00:09:14,637 --> 00:09:16,598
you're supposed to have
a aerospace degree

189
00:09:16,598 --> 00:09:19,392
and some sort of pedigree,
or you have to be really rich.

190
00:09:19,392 --> 00:09:21,186
Peter was
neither of these things.

191
00:09:21,186 --> 00:09:23,938
You haven't studied
at university in any way?

192
00:09:23,938 --> 00:09:25,398
No. No, no.

193
00:09:25,398 --> 00:09:27,692
<i>And what would be one
of the best pieces of advice</i>

194
00:09:27,692 --> 00:09:29,944
<i>that you could give
to other entrepreneurs</i>

195
00:09:29,944 --> 00:09:32,280
<i>that really want to push
their idea out?</i>

196
00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:33,990
Don't talk about it.
Just do it.

197
00:09:33,990 --> 00:09:35,367
Just get off your ass
and do it.

198
00:09:35,367 --> 00:09:37,410
Need to get that
into a fridge quick.

199
00:09:37,410 --> 00:09:38,787
Can someone open the door?

200
00:09:38,787 --> 00:09:40,872
<i>He's, like, this possessed
mad scientist.</i>

201
00:09:40,872 --> 00:09:42,457
And the rest of them?

202
00:09:42,457 --> 00:09:44,709
Quick, quick, quick.
Quick, quick, quick, quick.

203
00:09:44,709 --> 00:09:46,378
<i>I started building
a rocket engine.</i>

204
00:09:46,378 --> 00:09:48,672
<i>I test-fired it
a couple of times.</i>

205
00:09:48,672 --> 00:09:51,549
But to really evaluate,
you know, how good it was,

206
00:09:51,549 --> 00:09:54,052
I felt like
I needed to ride it.

207
00:09:54,052 --> 00:09:55,804
<i>So I started building a bike</i>

208
00:09:55,804 --> 00:09:59,182
<i>around the rocket engine.</i>

209
00:09:59,182 --> 00:10:01,559
<i>I've never felt
anything as good</i>

210
00:10:01,559 --> 00:10:03,561
<i>as a rocket-powered vehicle.</i>

211
00:10:03,561 --> 00:10:05,647
I've been supersonic
in a fighter jet.

212
00:10:05,647 --> 00:10:07,607
That was good. Wasn't as good
as the rocket bike.

213
00:10:07,607 --> 00:10:09,067
I built the rocket pack.

214
00:10:09,067 --> 00:10:11,027
And I was thinking,
let's get some rollerblades

215
00:10:11,027 --> 00:10:12,570
to try this thing on.

216
00:10:12,570 --> 00:10:15,448
<i>In order to play in this game,
there's a lot of risk.</i>

217
00:10:15,448 --> 00:10:19,786
So, if you don't like risk,
you're not gonna like this.

218
00:10:22,080 --> 00:10:24,082
<i>"Falcon 9's"
an incredible machine,</i>

219
00:10:24,082 --> 00:10:27,711
<i>but it's a big rocket
designed to take big payloads.</i>

220
00:10:27,711 --> 00:10:30,672
<i>Companies like
Rocket Lab and Astra</i>

221
00:10:30,672 --> 00:10:33,049
<i>are committed
to making small rockets</i>

222
00:10:33,049 --> 00:10:35,593
<i>that can take small satellites
for less money</i>

223
00:10:35,593 --> 00:10:38,763
<i>and then undercut SpaceX
on price.</i>

224
00:10:38,763 --> 00:10:40,598
What do you think
of Rocket Lab?

225
00:10:40,598 --> 00:10:42,767
What do I think
of Rocket Lab?

226
00:10:42,767 --> 00:10:44,894
Rocket Lab is a company
that has approached this

227
00:10:44,894 --> 00:10:47,397
in a very traditional way.

228
00:10:47,397 --> 00:10:49,858
<i>The rocket in itself is a very
high-performance machine.</i>

229
00:10:49,858 --> 00:10:51,901
<i>But it's expensive to build.</i>

230
00:10:53,862 --> 00:10:56,948
<i>We're more like a Ford,
a much more low-cost,</i>

231
00:10:56,948 --> 00:10:59,284
<i>mass-produced,
high-volume product.</i>

232
00:10:59,284 --> 00:11:01,411
I absolutely love
how light this thing is.

233
00:11:01,411 --> 00:11:04,956
If Peter's not right,
Peter loses.

234
00:11:04,956 --> 00:11:08,293
If I'm not right,
then I adapt.

235
00:11:08,293 --> 00:11:10,587
<i>I'm not built to build shit.</i>

236
00:11:10,587 --> 00:11:12,380
<i>If someone wants
to build a rocket</i>

237
00:11:12,380 --> 00:11:14,090
<i>that throws things into orbit,</i>

238
00:11:14,090 --> 00:11:17,093
<i>that's super rough,
super inaccurate,</i>

239
00:11:17,093 --> 00:11:18,803
<i>and that's
what the market needs,</i>

240
00:11:18,803 --> 00:11:20,013
let them win.

241
00:11:20,013 --> 00:11:22,223
But I'm not built
to build shit.

242
00:11:22,223 --> 00:11:23,975
[indistinct chatter]

243
00:11:23,975 --> 00:11:26,644
<i>There has to be something
fundamentally different</i>

244
00:11:26,644 --> 00:11:28,313
<i>about how we approach
the problem.</i>

245
00:11:28,313 --> 00:11:30,899
If we're gonna catch up
and then pass Rocket Lab

246
00:11:30,899 --> 00:11:32,192
and then build something

247
00:11:32,192 --> 00:11:34,361
which is ultimately
competitive with SpaceX...

248
00:11:34,361 --> 00:11:35,653
Sweet!

249
00:11:35,653 --> 00:11:37,822
We have to be a lot better
than everyone else.

250
00:11:39,824 --> 00:11:41,993
<i>At the end of the day,
it's about how many satellites</i>

251
00:11:41,993 --> 00:11:44,662
<i>we can deliver into space.</i>

252
00:11:44,662 --> 00:11:47,832
<i>[soft music]</i>

253
00:11:47,832 --> 00:11:50,126
<i>♪ ♪</i>

254
00:11:50,126 --> 00:11:54,631
<i>Most people don't appreciate
how much of their lives</i>

255
00:11:54,631 --> 00:11:57,676
<i>has space technology
underlying it.</i>

256
00:11:57,676 --> 00:12:00,679
The fabric of our civilization

257
00:12:00,679 --> 00:12:03,807
runs on satellites...

258
00:12:03,807 --> 00:12:05,684
<i>from package-delivery
tracking,</i>

259
00:12:05,684 --> 00:12:08,812
<i>GPS,
tomorrow's weather forecast,</i>

260
00:12:08,812 --> 00:12:10,355
<i>internet delivery.</i>

261
00:12:10,355 --> 00:12:12,148
<i>Elon Musk's Starlink
wants to send</i>

262
00:12:12,148 --> 00:12:13,566
<i>more than 40,000 satellites</i>

263
00:12:13,566 --> 00:12:15,568
<i>into space
in the coming years.</i>

264
00:12:15,568 --> 00:12:18,780
<i>In the previous world
that existed for decades,</i>

265
00:12:18,780 --> 00:12:22,158
<i>we'd managed to put up
2,500 satellites.</i>

266
00:12:22,158 --> 00:12:25,412
From 2020 to 2023,

267
00:12:25,412 --> 00:12:27,372
that number went
to about 8,000.

268
00:12:27,372 --> 00:12:29,165
<i>Thousands of connected satellites</i>

269
00:12:29,165 --> 00:12:31,126
<i>that can do
revolutionary things</i>

270
00:12:31,126 --> 00:12:35,255
<i>like bring broadband services
to millions, track refugees,</i>

271
00:12:35,255 --> 00:12:37,048
<i>and fight climate change,
while spotting storms</i>

272
00:12:37,048 --> 00:12:39,926
<i>before they get
to catastrophic levels.</i>

273
00:12:39,926 --> 00:12:43,346
This is not gonna stop.
We are going to 100,000.

274
00:12:43,346 --> 00:12:46,391
<i>In about 10 years,
a lot of people can make</i>

275
00:12:46,391 --> 00:12:48,685
<i>a good argument
we'll go to 200,000.</i>

276
00:12:48,685 --> 00:12:51,396
This is moving so much faster

277
00:12:51,396 --> 00:12:54,024
than what had existed
for the 60 years before.

278
00:12:54,024 --> 00:12:57,277
The world is not
fully prepared for it.

279
00:13:00,572 --> 00:13:03,199
<i>[dramatic music]</i>

280
00:13:03,199 --> 00:13:04,743
<i>♪ ♪</i>

281
00:13:04,743 --> 00:13:07,537
<i>He believes
that we can do better</i>

282
00:13:07,537 --> 00:13:10,582
<i>and go faster
by getting smaller,</i>

283
00:13:10,582 --> 00:13:12,709
<i>and thus introduced
flocks of tiny Doves</i>

284
00:13:12,709 --> 00:13:15,253
<i>which today
have revolutionized</i>

285
00:13:15,253 --> 00:13:18,506
<i>the entire
Earth observation industry.</i>

286
00:13:20,258 --> 00:13:23,678
<i>Will Marshall,
cofounder and CEO of Planet,</i>

287
00:13:23,678 --> 00:13:26,765
<i>needs no introduction.</i>

288
00:13:26,765 --> 00:13:29,642
The space renaissance
is not about escaping

289
00:13:29,642 --> 00:13:32,145
off to Mars with billionaire
space tourists.

290
00:13:32,145 --> 00:13:36,232
This space renaissance
is really about

291
00:13:36,232 --> 00:13:39,652
how we can advance our ability
to take care of the Earth.

292
00:13:39,652 --> 00:13:42,280
People have been talking
about the potential

293
00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:45,116
of small satellites
for decades.

294
00:13:45,116 --> 00:13:48,036
<i>Planet was the first company</i>

295
00:13:48,036 --> 00:13:50,747
<i>to show that that could
really be done.</i>

296
00:13:50,747 --> 00:13:53,917
<i>From these pictures
from space,</i>

297
00:13:53,917 --> 00:13:55,460
<i>we don't see borders.</i>

298
00:13:55,460 --> 00:14:00,215
We're giving humanity a mirror
to look back at itself.

299
00:14:00,215 --> 00:14:01,549
<i>When I look at companies
like Planet,</i>

300
00:14:01,549 --> 00:14:03,426
<i>these are mechanisms</i>

301
00:14:03,426 --> 00:14:07,055
<i>to implement the future
that we're trying to build.</i>

302
00:14:07,055 --> 00:14:08,890
We're all kind of
in this together

303
00:14:08,890 --> 00:14:12,769
to do something
really, really significant.

304
00:14:12,769 --> 00:14:14,270
<i>Will and I met in college,</i>

305
00:14:14,270 --> 00:14:17,399
<i>and he was breezing his way
through his master's</i>

306
00:14:17,399 --> 00:14:19,401
<i>in space science
and technology.</i>

307
00:14:19,401 --> 00:14:22,028
<i>And it was pretty clear
he was a genius</i>

308
00:14:22,028 --> 00:14:24,280
<i>and super fun
to hang out with.</i>

309
00:14:24,280 --> 00:14:26,157
I remember one
of the first things we did was,

310
00:14:26,157 --> 00:14:28,118
we jumped in my convertible.

311
00:14:28,118 --> 00:14:31,454
<i>He was driving around
in his BMW Z3.</i>

312
00:14:31,454 --> 00:14:33,623
Dropped out of university,
as all the cool kids do,

313
00:14:33,623 --> 00:14:35,750
<i>started a company.</i>

314
00:14:35,750 --> 00:14:39,754
<i>He was already a millionaire,
and he was 21 years old.</i>

315
00:14:39,754 --> 00:14:41,715
And I was like,
who is this kid?

316
00:14:41,715 --> 00:14:43,299
<i>And we became friends.</i>

317
00:14:43,299 --> 00:14:45,176
<i>I'm just gonna say it.</i>

318
00:14:45,176 --> 00:14:46,594
You guys seem like
an odd couple.

319
00:14:46,594 --> 00:14:47,679
[laughs]

320
00:14:47,679 --> 00:14:50,181
I think--yes, we're odd.
Yes, definitely.

321
00:14:50,181 --> 00:14:53,685
I'm a scientist,
and he's a capitalist.

322
00:14:53,685 --> 00:14:55,270
And, in fact, he often says now

323
00:14:55,270 --> 00:14:56,855
he's converted me
to be a capitalist.

324
00:14:56,855 --> 00:14:58,314
I'm like, no, no, no.

325
00:14:58,314 --> 00:15:01,276
At what point did you
discover the idea of money?

326
00:15:01,276 --> 00:15:02,944
[laughs]
Pretty early on.

327
00:15:02,944 --> 00:15:04,362
- You're not looking--
- Hey, Christopher.

328
00:15:04,362 --> 00:15:05,780
How's it going, dude?

329
00:15:05,780 --> 00:15:07,198
All right, man.

330
00:15:07,198 --> 00:15:09,659
I'm, like, in Beverly Hills
right now.

331
00:15:09,659 --> 00:15:11,536
All these people
are here to see me.

332
00:15:11,536 --> 00:15:14,205
<i>[mid-tempo music]</i>

333
00:15:14,205 --> 00:15:16,332
<i>My dad was a professor,
and my mom was a teacher.</i>

334
00:15:16,332 --> 00:15:18,835
<i>And they were
extremely frugal.</i>

335
00:15:18,835 --> 00:15:22,088
It's king of the mountain!

336
00:15:22,088 --> 00:15:25,091
I don't really know
anyone like me.

337
00:15:25,091 --> 00:15:26,926
<i>I love "Star Trek."</i>

338
00:15:26,926 --> 00:15:28,928
Because I have had little
experience with emotion,

339
00:15:28,928 --> 00:15:31,890
I am unable to articulate
the sensation.

340
00:15:31,890 --> 00:15:34,726
<i>I would really connect with,
like, the Data character.</i>

341
00:15:34,726 --> 00:15:36,770
There was a period
where I told kids at school

342
00:15:36,770 --> 00:15:38,021
that I was an android

343
00:15:38,021 --> 00:15:40,565
because that was
just so much easier.

344
00:15:40,565 --> 00:15:42,484
<i>I kind of created
my own little--</i>

345
00:15:42,484 --> 00:15:44,778
my own little world
in my mind.

346
00:15:46,821 --> 00:15:48,239
<i>I ended up realizing</i>

347
00:15:48,239 --> 00:15:50,241
<i>that if you could take
something apart and fix it,</i>

348
00:15:50,241 --> 00:15:52,494
<i>you could sell it for more
than what you paid for it.</i>

349
00:15:52,494 --> 00:15:55,372
And so that became
quite a hustle for me.

350
00:15:55,372 --> 00:15:58,208
<i>So I made a ton of money
just buying computers,</i>

351
00:15:58,208 --> 00:15:59,876
<i>fixing them, selling them.</i>

352
00:15:59,876 --> 00:16:02,170
And that funded my lifestyle...

353
00:16:02,170 --> 00:16:04,339
[chuckles]
As a nerd.

354
00:16:04,339 --> 00:16:05,590
[chuckles]

355
00:16:05,590 --> 00:16:09,344
<i>[playful music]</i>

356
00:16:09,344 --> 00:16:11,930
<i>We were having
our New Year's party.</i>

357
00:16:11,930 --> 00:16:14,182
<i>This was kind of
a young bunch of nerds.</i>

358
00:16:14,182 --> 00:16:15,934
I remember a bunch
of NASA stickers

359
00:16:15,934 --> 00:16:17,602
being plastered on people.

360
00:16:17,602 --> 00:16:20,980
And then this guy comes in

361
00:16:20,980 --> 00:16:23,566
who's clearly
three times our age.

362
00:16:23,566 --> 00:16:26,027
<i>And he just totally
didn't fit in, you know?</i>

363
00:16:26,027 --> 00:16:29,030
He's holding a martini glass,
just cackling away at how,

364
00:16:29,030 --> 00:16:30,699
when he was running
the Star Wars program,

365
00:16:30,699 --> 00:16:33,284
he would have the Darth Vader
theme song play

366
00:16:33,284 --> 00:16:35,203
as people came
into his office.

367
00:16:35,203 --> 00:16:37,497
And it's just,
"Who is this guy?"

368
00:16:37,497 --> 00:16:39,416
<i>It turns out that Will
and Robbie had met him</i>

369
00:16:39,416 --> 00:16:41,710
<i>a few years earlier
at this World Space Conference</i>

370
00:16:41,710 --> 00:16:43,044
<i>in Houston.</i>

371
00:16:43,044 --> 00:16:45,630
<i>There was this closed,
invite-only session,</i>

372
00:16:45,630 --> 00:16:48,216
and it was about military
and space.

373
00:16:48,216 --> 00:16:50,802
<i>So we stood outside</i>

374
00:16:50,802 --> 00:16:53,054
<i>and handed out
these little flyers.</i>

375
00:16:53,054 --> 00:16:55,890
"Peace in space.
No space weapons."

376
00:16:57,475 --> 00:16:59,811
<i>Later on that evening,
we were in a bar,</i>

377
00:16:59,811 --> 00:17:03,231
and we get introduced
to Pete Worden.

378
00:17:03,231 --> 00:17:05,567
- All right.
- Hop in the hot seat.

379
00:17:05,567 --> 00:17:08,611
Hop in the hot seat.
- That's you, sir.

380
00:17:08,611 --> 00:17:09,779
- I'm Pete.
- It's a pleasure.

381
00:17:09,779 --> 00:17:10,864
Good to meet you.

382
00:17:10,864 --> 00:17:12,323
So many great stories
about you.

383
00:17:12,323 --> 00:17:13,992
Great. Some of them
are partially true.

384
00:17:13,992 --> 00:17:16,244
[laughs]

385
00:17:16,244 --> 00:17:19,581
<i>Pete Worden,
the tech lead for SDI,</i>

386
00:17:19,581 --> 00:17:21,791
which was the
Strategic Defense Initiative.

387
00:17:21,791 --> 00:17:23,877
People usually know it
as Star Wars.

388
00:17:23,877 --> 00:17:26,421
<i>Spanning into space,
a layered defense</i>

389
00:17:26,421 --> 00:17:29,382
<i>to protect the country
from nuclear devastation.</i>

390
00:17:29,382 --> 00:17:31,259
It was, like, Reagan's--
"We're gonna surround

391
00:17:31,259 --> 00:17:33,845
"the world
with a missile defense shield

392
00:17:33,845 --> 00:17:35,305
of space-based lasers."

393
00:17:35,305 --> 00:17:38,475
<i>A friend of mine and
I decided to have a drink.</i>

394
00:17:38,475 --> 00:17:40,310
<i>There was a bunch
of young people</i>

395
00:17:40,310 --> 00:17:42,395
<i>sitting in the corner
bemoaning the fact</i>

396
00:17:42,395 --> 00:17:44,022
<i>that there was space weapons.</i>

397
00:17:44,022 --> 00:17:46,399
I said, "Who are the assholes?

398
00:17:46,399 --> 00:17:48,068
"Do you think they know
that Darth Vader

399
00:17:48,068 --> 00:17:49,319
is sitting right over here?"

400
00:17:49,319 --> 00:17:51,988
And then we had
a massive argument in a pub.

401
00:17:51,988 --> 00:17:53,990
A friendly argument,
mostly friendly.

402
00:17:53,990 --> 00:17:56,618
We were like, "Look, you
can't put weapons in space.

403
00:17:56,618 --> 00:17:59,954
It's ethically
a monstrous idea."

404
00:17:59,954 --> 00:18:01,706
And he was like,
"We've got to do this

405
00:18:01,706 --> 00:18:03,041
"to protect American security.

406
00:18:03,041 --> 00:18:05,460
You don't understand
what you're talking about."

407
00:18:05,460 --> 00:18:07,712
<i>He wrote an email to me
the next day saying,</i>

408
00:18:07,712 --> 00:18:10,048
<i>"Hey, I really enjoyed
our conversation last night.</i>

409
00:18:10,048 --> 00:18:12,384
"Why don't we write
a paper together?

410
00:18:12,384 --> 00:18:14,052
"You write the cons,
and I'll write

411
00:18:14,052 --> 00:18:15,553
"the pros of space weapons.

412
00:18:15,553 --> 00:18:17,555
And we'll hash it out."

413
00:18:17,555 --> 00:18:20,308
And we were like,
who is this guy?

414
00:18:20,308 --> 00:18:22,394
I mean, he's a general
in the U.S. Air Force

415
00:18:22,394 --> 00:18:25,355
in charge of, like,
a billion-dollar-a-year

416
00:18:25,355 --> 00:18:28,608
space weapon program,
and we're students.

417
00:18:28,608 --> 00:18:31,403
So we were like, well,
might as well give it a shot.

418
00:18:31,403 --> 00:18:32,696
Sure. Why not?

419
00:18:32,696 --> 00:18:35,532
I mean, basically,
we've met our mortal enemy.

420
00:18:35,532 --> 00:18:37,617
May as well try
and persuade him

421
00:18:37,617 --> 00:18:39,536
not to do what he's doing.

422
00:18:39,536 --> 00:18:41,496
<i>Pete Worden
is not just someone</i>

423
00:18:41,496 --> 00:18:43,415
<i>with a passing interest
in space.</i>

424
00:18:43,415 --> 00:18:45,625
He's got a PhD
in astrophysics.

425
00:18:45,625 --> 00:18:49,671
He's writing papers
about the nature of stars.

426
00:18:49,671 --> 00:18:51,756
<i>Well, I grew up
during the Apollo program.</i>

427
00:18:51,756 --> 00:18:53,133
<i>It was really cool.</i>

428
00:18:53,133 --> 00:18:54,384
<i>I wanted to be an astronaut.</i>

429
00:18:54,384 --> 00:18:56,261
I was a finalist once
but didn't get selected.

430
00:18:56,261 --> 00:18:59,097
So I'm a little jealous
of astronauts.

431
00:18:59,097 --> 00:19:00,432
<i>Getting off the planet,</i>

432
00:19:00,432 --> 00:19:02,225
<i>expanding into the solar system</i>

433
00:19:02,225 --> 00:19:04,394
and beyond is a driving force.

434
00:19:04,394 --> 00:19:05,603
It's my religion.

435
00:19:05,603 --> 00:19:06,771
You love this shit.

436
00:19:06,771 --> 00:19:08,189
I do love this shit.

437
00:19:08,189 --> 00:19:10,358
I'm a futurist, always have
been and always will be.

438
00:19:10,358 --> 00:19:12,110
I guess that's--
[laughs]

439
00:19:12,110 --> 00:19:15,405
<i>[soft dramatic music]</i>

440
00:19:15,405 --> 00:19:22,495
<i>♪ ♪</i>

441
00:19:23,997 --> 00:19:26,708
<i>July 20, 1969--</i>

442
00:19:26,708 --> 00:19:29,002
<i>it is said
that 500 million people</i>

443
00:19:29,002 --> 00:19:31,254
<i>gathered in TV sets
around the world</i>

444
00:19:31,254 --> 00:19:33,006
<i>to wait
for the first earthling</i>

445
00:19:33,006 --> 00:19:34,591
<i>to set foot on the moon.</i>

446
00:19:34,591 --> 00:19:37,469
<i>The kind of exploratory
ventures we're talking about</i>

447
00:19:37,469 --> 00:19:40,305
<i>seem to me to be
precisely the kind</i>

448
00:19:40,305 --> 00:19:42,766
that are needed
to re-establish

449
00:19:42,766 --> 00:19:44,934
a cosmic context for mankind.

450
00:19:44,934 --> 00:19:47,729
<i>You know, in the '60s,</i>

451
00:19:47,729 --> 00:19:50,190
<i>NASA was
incredibly innovative,</i>

452
00:19:50,190 --> 00:19:52,567
launching new missions to
the moon every couple months,

453
00:19:52,567 --> 00:19:54,194
<i>trying new things.</i>

454
00:19:55,862 --> 00:19:57,489
<i>The brand was synonymous</i>

455
00:19:57,489 --> 00:19:59,824
<i>with exploring
the solar system,</i>

456
00:19:59,824 --> 00:20:01,368
<i>and there was magic in that.</i>

457
00:20:01,368 --> 00:20:02,994
It's the next frontier.

458
00:20:02,994 --> 00:20:05,789
<i>And liftoff of "Atlantis"
and the "Galileo" spacecraft,</i>

459
00:20:05,789 --> 00:20:07,082
<i>bound for Jupiter.</i>

460
00:20:07,082 --> 00:20:08,792
<i>NASA was
incredibly exciting.</i>

461
00:20:08,792 --> 00:20:10,669
<i>Rock and roll, "Atlantis."</i>

462
00:20:10,669 --> 00:20:13,421
<i>I had a little space shuttle
model that sat on my monitor</i>

463
00:20:13,421 --> 00:20:14,673
<i>for years and years and years.</i>

464
00:20:14,673 --> 00:20:16,633
And I would look at that
space shuttle and go,

465
00:20:16,633 --> 00:20:19,177
"I'm gonna work there one day.
I'm gonna work there one day."

466
00:20:19,177 --> 00:20:23,515
<i>♪ ♪</i>

467
00:20:23,515 --> 00:20:26,184
<i>I went to the United States
for a month.</i>

468
00:20:26,184 --> 00:20:28,144
I went on a bit of a rocket
pilgrimage, really,

469
00:20:28,144 --> 00:20:30,313
<i>and went and visited
all these companies</i>

470
00:20:30,313 --> 00:20:31,773
<i>that I'd aspired to work for.</i>

471
00:20:31,773 --> 00:20:34,317
<i>You know, I was pitching them
hard for a job.</i>

472
00:20:34,317 --> 00:20:38,071
<i>As a foreign national,
no university education,</i>

473
00:20:38,071 --> 00:20:40,532
<i>no aerospace background,
asking for a job</i>

474
00:20:40,532 --> 00:20:41,950
wasn't gonna go well.

475
00:20:44,035 --> 00:20:46,079
<i>My expectation of NASA</i>

476
00:20:46,079 --> 00:20:49,207
<i>was NASA from the Apollo era.</i>

477
00:20:49,207 --> 00:20:52,252
<i>The NASA that I had seen
in the movies and had imagined</i>

478
00:20:52,252 --> 00:20:55,171
<i>was very, very different
to the NASA that--</i>

479
00:20:55,171 --> 00:20:57,507
<i>that was actually there.</i>

480
00:20:57,507 --> 00:21:00,510
I'm thinking, "Man,
what the hell happened here?"

481
00:21:00,510 --> 00:21:02,303
It was
terribly bureaucratic.

482
00:21:02,303 --> 00:21:05,640
<i>It's very difficult to start
innovative, new things</i>

483
00:21:05,640 --> 00:21:08,226
<i>because there's a lot
of government inertia.</i>

484
00:21:08,226 --> 00:21:10,562
It became a self-licking
ice cream cone.

485
00:21:10,562 --> 00:21:14,232
<i>It only kept going because
it paid a lot of people</i>

486
00:21:14,232 --> 00:21:16,401
and it had a lot
of political support.

487
00:21:16,401 --> 00:21:19,904
<i>The average age was 52,
and everybody was talking</i>

488
00:21:19,904 --> 00:21:21,740
<i>about the things
we used to do,</i>

489
00:21:21,740 --> 00:21:24,492
<i>rather than the things
that needed to be done.</i>

490
00:21:27,746 --> 00:21:31,374
<i>Flight attendants, prepare
for gate departure, please.</i>

491
00:21:31,374 --> 00:21:33,918
<i>I had a plan in my head
for years.</i>

492
00:21:33,918 --> 00:21:35,670
<i>I was gonna come
to the United States,</i>

493
00:21:35,670 --> 00:21:37,714
<i>do my rocket pilgrimage,
crawl over some rocks.</i>

494
00:21:37,714 --> 00:21:40,008
<i>It was gonna suck,
but I would find a way.</i>

495
00:21:40,008 --> 00:21:41,968
<i>And then the probable went</i>

496
00:21:41,968 --> 00:21:45,930
<i>to absolutely
and categorically improbable.</i>

497
00:21:45,930 --> 00:21:49,517
<i>There's nothing like 12 hours
of just, like,</i>

498
00:21:49,517 --> 00:21:54,147
solid thinking time
to reevaluate your life.

499
00:21:54,147 --> 00:21:56,566
<i>I just remember sitting
in the chair thinking,</i>

500
00:21:56,566 --> 00:21:58,401
<i>this is not good.</i>

501
00:21:58,401 --> 00:22:00,945
<i>This is not how
it's supposed to be.</i>

502
00:22:00,945 --> 00:22:05,116
The only logical solution
was just, like, fuck it.

503
00:22:05,116 --> 00:22:08,536
Let's start a company.

504
00:22:08,536 --> 00:22:10,038
Bring that around.

505
00:22:10,038 --> 00:22:13,041
<i>It's Peter, a couple dudes
who he knows.</i>

506
00:22:13,041 --> 00:22:16,586
"Can we make a small rocket
and try to get it to space?"

507
00:22:16,586 --> 00:22:19,089
And so they work on this
for, really, a couple years.

508
00:22:19,089 --> 00:22:21,966
<i>Everything is borrowed,
or some generous person</i>

509
00:22:21,966 --> 00:22:23,927
<i>happens to give them
a chunk of metal</i>

510
00:22:23,927 --> 00:22:25,303
<i>or something like that.</i>

511
00:22:25,303 --> 00:22:28,223
This is the very, very humble
beginnings of Rocket Lab.

512
00:22:28,223 --> 00:22:30,433
[indistinct speech]

513
00:22:30,433 --> 00:22:33,728
<i>I was driving to work,
and I heard on the radio</i>

514
00:22:33,728 --> 00:22:38,441
<i>that this guy had
renamed himself Mark Rocket.</i>

515
00:22:38,441 --> 00:22:40,402
You could not write this.
[laughs]

516
00:22:40,402 --> 00:22:43,738
He hears about a guy
actually named Mark Rocket...

517
00:22:43,738 --> 00:22:45,323
[laughs]
Who's rich.

518
00:22:45,323 --> 00:22:48,868
<i>He happened to be looking
for a way to invest in space.</i>

519
00:22:48,868 --> 00:22:51,037
And this guy,
Peter Beck, comes along.

520
00:22:51,037 --> 00:22:52,997
<i>He's actually built a rocket,
and says, you know,</i>

521
00:22:52,997 --> 00:22:55,041
"Do you want to start
a company together?"

522
00:22:55,041 --> 00:22:58,003
And Peter gives away
half his company

523
00:22:58,003 --> 00:23:00,672
for a couple
hundred thousand dollars

524
00:23:00,672 --> 00:23:02,007
just to get this going.

525
00:23:02,007 --> 00:23:04,592
You'd be crucified
for doing something like that

526
00:23:04,592 --> 00:23:05,844
in Silicon Valley.

527
00:23:05,844 --> 00:23:08,346
But Peter sort of
doesn't know any better,

528
00:23:08,346 --> 00:23:09,931
and he's also desperate.

529
00:23:09,931 --> 00:23:11,516
And this is, like,
manna from heaven

530
00:23:11,516 --> 00:23:13,518
with this guy
named Mark Rocket

531
00:23:13,518 --> 00:23:15,603
who's rich and wants to pay
for his thing.

532
00:23:15,603 --> 00:23:17,689
<i>[steady music]</i>

533
00:23:17,689 --> 00:23:19,691
<i>Prior to that,
all the rockets I'd built</i>

534
00:23:19,691 --> 00:23:21,359
<i>I'd strapped to things
that I had ridden.</i>

535
00:23:21,359 --> 00:23:23,528
<i>So this was the first rocket
that I hadn't actually ridden</i>

536
00:23:23,528 --> 00:23:25,864
nor had any desire to.

537
00:23:25,864 --> 00:23:27,782
<i>You know, we'd done
lots of engine testing,</i>

538
00:23:27,782 --> 00:23:30,452
<i>and stage-separation testing,
and parachute-drop testing.</i>

539
00:23:30,452 --> 00:23:33,163
We had no more money.
We had no more anything.

540
00:23:33,163 --> 00:23:35,457
Everything was on the line.

541
00:23:35,457 --> 00:23:39,836
That rocket needed to go,
and it needed to go well.

542
00:23:39,836 --> 00:23:42,422
In the tradition
of great New Zealand explorers,

543
00:23:42,422 --> 00:23:46,051
New Zealand,
we are a go for space.

544
00:23:46,051 --> 00:23:49,012
Arm igniter.

545
00:23:49,012 --> 00:23:51,556
<i>Arm oxygen.</i>

546
00:23:51,556 --> 00:23:53,850
Coupler disconnect.

547
00:23:53,850 --> 00:23:56,061
Coming through.
No smoke.

548
00:23:56,061 --> 00:23:59,564
<i>Ten, nine, eight--oxygen.</i>

549
00:23:59,564 --> 00:24:03,276
Seven, six, five, four,

550
00:24:03,276 --> 00:24:06,029
three, two, one.

551
00:24:11,242 --> 00:24:13,995
You fucking did it!

552
00:24:13,995 --> 00:24:15,413
Yes!

553
00:24:15,413 --> 00:24:18,750
[all cheering]

554
00:24:20,585 --> 00:24:22,879
[sheep bleating]

555
00:24:22,879 --> 00:24:24,714
She's still burning!

556
00:24:24,714 --> 00:24:28,051
[indistinct chatter]

557
00:24:34,808 --> 00:24:35,892
She's gone!

558
00:24:35,892 --> 00:24:40,397
22 seconds,
we're home free to space!

559
00:24:40,397 --> 00:24:44,109
<i>[mid-tempo music]</i>

560
00:24:44,109 --> 00:24:48,488
<i>NASA Ames is this
Silicon Valley NASA center.</i>

561
00:24:48,488 --> 00:24:50,115
It's gone through all these
ups and downs.

562
00:24:50,115 --> 00:24:53,493
<i>In the 2000s, it's
in a really fallow period</i>

563
00:24:53,493 --> 00:24:54,744
<i>where the government</i>

564
00:24:54,744 --> 00:24:57,622
is thinking
about shutting it down.

565
00:24:57,622 --> 00:24:59,958
<i>At the time, Pete Worden
was the head of this</i>

566
00:24:59,958 --> 00:25:02,502
<i>Office of Strategic Influence
at the Pentagon,</i>

567
00:25:02,502 --> 00:25:05,547
<i>and he'd just been fired
by the Secretary of Defense,</i>

568
00:25:05,547 --> 00:25:07,007
<i>Donald Rumsfeld.</i>

569
00:25:07,007 --> 00:25:09,926
Well, I'd just been
fired from my job

570
00:25:09,926 --> 00:25:12,303
because I was a bit
of a hot potato.

571
00:25:12,303 --> 00:25:16,141
Pete said, and I quote,
"Donald Rumsfeld fucked me.

572
00:25:16,141 --> 00:25:17,976
"But they're gonna give me
a NASA center

573
00:25:17,976 --> 00:25:19,477
to make up for it."

574
00:25:19,477 --> 00:25:21,980
<i>And they say, "Pete,
you're, like, our last hope.</i>

575
00:25:21,980 --> 00:25:23,606
"We're gonna give you
this NASA center.

576
00:25:23,606 --> 00:25:25,150
"See if you can do
something interesting,

577
00:25:25,150 --> 00:25:27,068
and maybe
we'll keep it around."

578
00:25:27,068 --> 00:25:29,320
Hi, I'm Pete Worden,
the director

579
00:25:29,320 --> 00:25:31,740
of the NASA Ames
Research Center.

580
00:25:31,740 --> 00:25:34,325
<i>Pete starts to have
these thoughts of, like,</i>

581
00:25:34,325 --> 00:25:36,453
how can we innovate in space?

582
00:25:36,453 --> 00:25:38,455
How can we do
different things?

583
00:25:38,455 --> 00:25:41,291
<i>When I came to Ames,
I brought a hat trick</i>

584
00:25:41,291 --> 00:25:43,543
of young people with me.

585
00:25:43,543 --> 00:25:45,837
<i>He called Robbie and me up,
and he said,</i>

586
00:25:45,837 --> 00:25:47,422
<i>"I've got this new job.</i>

587
00:25:47,422 --> 00:25:49,341
Do you want
to come work with me?"

588
00:25:49,341 --> 00:25:51,343
And... [laughs]
We were like hemming and hawing

589
00:25:51,343 --> 00:25:53,178
On the one hand, we didn't
want to work for our enemy.

590
00:25:53,178 --> 00:25:54,721
On the other hand,
we were like,

591
00:25:54,721 --> 00:25:56,097
he's going to work at NASA.

592
00:25:56,097 --> 00:25:57,766
<i>And he basically said,
"Hey, you can do</i>

593
00:25:57,766 --> 00:25:59,184
<i>whatever space missions
you want."</i>

594
00:25:59,184 --> 00:26:00,560
And we were like, what?

595
00:26:00,560 --> 00:26:02,812
<i>Who gets to do, you know,
missions like that</i>

596
00:26:02,812 --> 00:26:06,483
<i>when we were kids, you know,
mid-20s at this point.</i>

597
00:26:06,483 --> 00:26:09,402
<i>He had this vision
for pulling all this together.</i>

598
00:26:09,402 --> 00:26:11,029
<i>And he said,
"Well, what are you doing?"</i>

599
00:26:11,029 --> 00:26:13,615
I said, "Well, I'm running
this travel software startup."

600
00:26:13,615 --> 00:26:16,326
And he goes, "Well,
that's bullshit," you know?

601
00:26:16,326 --> 00:26:19,788
"Why do travel when you can
come do space travel with me?"

602
00:26:19,788 --> 00:26:21,790
<i>He would surround himself
with people</i>

603
00:26:21,790 --> 00:26:23,124
<i>that had different contexts,</i>

604
00:26:23,124 --> 00:26:25,001
that had
a different worldview.

605
00:26:25,001 --> 00:26:26,878
<i>"But let's let
1,000 flowers bloom here</i>

606
00:26:26,878 --> 00:26:28,630
"somehow in the space sector.

607
00:26:28,630 --> 00:26:31,216
I'll create the environment."

608
00:26:31,216 --> 00:26:33,551
<i>These are, like,
the best of the best.</i>

609
00:26:33,551 --> 00:26:37,389
PhDs in all different areas
of physics, computer science.

610
00:26:37,389 --> 00:26:39,557
<i>It really started
a revolution,</i>

611
00:26:39,557 --> 00:26:43,228
or I might call it
a counterrevolution.

612
00:26:43,228 --> 00:26:46,940
Pete had hired us to be
a "special studies team,"

613
00:26:46,940 --> 00:26:48,858
<i>which was sort of
an ambiguous,</i>

614
00:26:48,858 --> 00:26:50,443
murky umbrella term

615
00:26:50,443 --> 00:26:52,237
for, "Go and do things
that you think will cause

616
00:26:52,237 --> 00:26:54,447
"just enough trouble
to be interesting

617
00:26:54,447 --> 00:26:57,367
and not enough trouble
to get me fired, mostly."

618
00:26:57,367 --> 00:27:01,246
<i>Chris Kemp gets brought in
because he's a nerd</i>

619
00:27:01,246 --> 00:27:04,082
who had done
some successful dot-coms.

620
00:27:04,082 --> 00:27:06,334
<i>Chris was a real expert
in software,</i>

621
00:27:06,334 --> 00:27:08,253
so I ended up making him
my chief information officer.

622
00:27:08,253 --> 00:27:10,046
<i>Chris didn't even have
a degree,</i>

623
00:27:10,046 --> 00:27:11,840
<i>but I managed
to force that through.</i>

624
00:27:11,840 --> 00:27:13,591
I actually printed
my own business cards.

625
00:27:13,591 --> 00:27:16,052
<i>I took the coolest
NASA business card</i>

626
00:27:16,052 --> 00:27:18,096
<i>that I'd ever been handed,
and then I made up a title.</i>

627
00:27:18,096 --> 00:27:19,431
<i>And I think I called myself</i>

628
00:27:19,431 --> 00:27:21,850
the Director of Strategic
Business Development.

629
00:27:21,850 --> 00:27:24,519
<i>Invented the role,
printed a business card,</i>

630
00:27:24,519 --> 00:27:27,230
<i>and just did that.</i>

631
00:27:27,230 --> 00:27:29,941
Pete is, like, inheriting
NASA Ames at the same time

632
00:27:29,941 --> 00:27:32,861
that SpaceX is trying to build
their first rocket.

633
00:27:32,861 --> 00:27:34,863
<i>These dot-com-ers
are building rockets.</i>

634
00:27:34,863 --> 00:27:36,364
You welcome that?

635
00:27:36,364 --> 00:27:38,283
Their success
is going to enable us

636
00:27:38,283 --> 00:27:39,868
to settle the solar system

637
00:27:39,868 --> 00:27:41,619
and do all these other
wonderful things in space

638
00:27:41,619 --> 00:27:43,079
because it's gonna
lower the cost.

639
00:27:43,079 --> 00:27:45,415
And it really creates
this joint momentum

640
00:27:45,415 --> 00:27:47,876
<i>at the right time,
where you've got people</i>

641
00:27:47,876 --> 00:27:49,627
outside of NASA
trying some new ideas,

642
00:27:49,627 --> 00:27:52,964
and now you've got this, like,
rebel alliance inside of NASA.

643
00:27:55,133 --> 00:27:56,801
<i>One of the things
we tried to do was,</i>

644
00:27:56,801 --> 00:27:58,887
can we find cheap ways
to get to the moon?

645
00:27:58,887 --> 00:28:02,140
<i>So we ended up setting up
a kind of quiet lunar program.</i>

646
00:28:02,140 --> 00:28:04,309
<i>We were trying to make
a modular spacecraft</i>

647
00:28:04,309 --> 00:28:06,311
<i>that could be used
for various missions.</i>

648
00:28:06,311 --> 00:28:08,188
And we basically crash-landed

649
00:28:08,188 --> 00:28:10,857
<i>into the south pole
of the moon.</i>

650
00:28:10,857 --> 00:28:12,984
<i>We found loads of water.</i>

651
00:28:12,984 --> 00:28:15,070
<i>We're gonna build
a lunar lander,</i>

652
00:28:15,070 --> 00:28:18,823
and we're gonna show NASA
that space can be different.

653
00:28:18,823 --> 00:28:22,160
Everything does not have to be
$1 billion, $2 billion.

654
00:28:24,204 --> 00:28:27,499
<i>He really helped bring
NASA Ames</i>

655
00:28:27,499 --> 00:28:29,834
<i>into the modern space era.</i>

656
00:28:29,834 --> 00:28:32,671
A lot of the positive change
that's happened

657
00:28:32,671 --> 00:28:35,840
can be traced back
to Pete's work.

658
00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:39,010
[all shouting]

659
00:28:39,010 --> 00:28:41,471
<i>He is legend
in NASA circles, you know?</i>

660
00:28:41,471 --> 00:28:42,681
We call him a rebel.

661
00:28:42,681 --> 00:28:44,349
He did things that--

662
00:28:44,349 --> 00:28:45,934
he broke the mold.

663
00:28:45,934 --> 00:28:48,144
<i>And the young people
liked that,</i>

664
00:28:48,144 --> 00:28:49,562
and they followed him.

665
00:28:49,562 --> 00:28:51,940
<i>[upbeat music]</i>

666
00:28:51,940 --> 00:28:53,858
<i>One of the crazier things
he did was,</i>

667
00:28:53,858 --> 00:28:55,276
<i>he allowed our whole team</i>

668
00:28:55,276 --> 00:28:57,529
to organize
a space party there.

669
00:28:57,529 --> 00:28:59,322
<i>It wasn't just a space party.</i>

670
00:28:59,322 --> 00:29:02,075
It's a rave with 8,000 people.

671
00:29:02,075 --> 00:29:04,619
<i>So Yuri's Night is
World Space Party.</i>

672
00:29:04,619 --> 00:29:07,122
<i>It celebrates Yuri Gagarin's
first spaceflight.</i>

673
00:29:07,122 --> 00:29:09,958
And the idea is to make space
not, like, a national thing

674
00:29:09,958 --> 00:29:11,251
but an international thing.

675
00:29:11,251 --> 00:29:13,169
I said, well, you know
we're a NASA center.

676
00:29:13,169 --> 00:29:14,629
We can do a really cool party.

677
00:29:14,629 --> 00:29:16,256
He's like,
"Jessy, go for it.

678
00:29:16,256 --> 00:29:18,633
Like, you have my blessing."

679
00:29:18,633 --> 00:29:20,385
I love that picture.
[laughs]

680
00:29:20,385 --> 00:29:22,554
<i>It's me and Pete
at NASA celebrating</i>

681
00:29:22,554 --> 00:29:26,141
a Russian cosmonaut's
first orbit around the Earth,

682
00:29:26,141 --> 00:29:28,184
beating America to the punch.

683
00:29:28,184 --> 00:29:29,894
For those of you
that know me,

684
00:29:29,894 --> 00:29:31,813
I used to be
a U.S. Brigadier General.

685
00:29:31,813 --> 00:29:33,898
I think this is a Soviet
two-star general's outfit,

686
00:29:33,898 --> 00:29:38,028
so I took a promotion.

687
00:29:38,028 --> 00:29:40,739
<i>So we had these raves,
and they were really cool.</i>

688
00:29:40,739 --> 00:29:43,366
<i>Yes, there was probably quite
a bit of marijuana smoking.</i>

689
00:29:43,366 --> 00:29:44,576
And I got in a little trouble

690
00:29:44,576 --> 00:29:45,910
because I told
the security people that--

691
00:29:45,910 --> 00:29:47,162
they said,
"Well, what do we do

692
00:29:47,162 --> 00:29:48,538
with those people
smoking dope?"

693
00:29:48,538 --> 00:29:49,998
And I said,
"Just don't go over there."

694
00:29:49,998 --> 00:29:52,000
[chuckles]

695
00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:53,918
<i>One of Pete's
Air Force colleagues</i>

696
00:29:53,918 --> 00:29:55,378
<i>kept on putting up his phone,</i>

697
00:29:55,378 --> 00:29:58,548
saying, "This phone has most
of what a spacecraft has."

698
00:29:58,548 --> 00:30:00,550
<i>This is just when
smartphones were coming out.</i>

699
00:30:00,550 --> 00:30:03,803
<i>Suddenly, there was GPS,
cameras, faster computers.</i>

700
00:30:03,803 --> 00:30:05,805
If you look at the list
of a smartphone

701
00:30:05,805 --> 00:30:07,766
and the list of things
in a spacecraft,

702
00:30:07,766 --> 00:30:08,892
90% the same thing.

703
00:30:08,892 --> 00:30:10,435
And we were like, OK.

704
00:30:10,435 --> 00:30:12,687
Why don't we just fly
a few of these suckers?

705
00:30:12,687 --> 00:30:16,066
<i>We fit one of these phones
into a little cube,</i>

706
00:30:16,066 --> 00:30:17,692
<i>did all these tests on it.</i>

707
00:30:19,861 --> 00:30:22,447
I'm not really sure
whether the phone survived.

708
00:30:22,447 --> 00:30:24,240
- Oh, no.
- Hey!

709
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:26,034
[indistinct chatter]

710
00:30:26,034 --> 00:30:28,036
<i>Part of it was just
to make the satellite</i>

711
00:30:28,036 --> 00:30:30,622
not be this, like,
precious object.

712
00:30:30,622 --> 00:30:32,374
It's just a phone.

713
00:30:32,374 --> 00:30:34,793
Whoo!

714
00:30:34,793 --> 00:30:36,628
<i>I was hauled
into Pete's office.</i>

715
00:30:36,628 --> 00:30:37,879
"What are you doing?"

716
00:30:37,879 --> 00:30:39,464
And we were like,
"What are you talking about?"

717
00:30:39,464 --> 00:30:41,049
And he's like, "You're
launching phones into space.

718
00:30:41,049 --> 00:30:42,217
You didn't tell me."

719
00:30:42,217 --> 00:30:43,927
<i>So we almost got fired.</i>

720
00:30:43,927 --> 00:30:45,553
Then we were like,
"No, no, no, no, chill out.

721
00:30:45,553 --> 00:30:46,930
"It's gonna be great.

722
00:30:46,930 --> 00:30:48,640
"These phones are gonna show
that we can do spacecraft

723
00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:50,558
for much, much lower cost."

724
00:30:50,558 --> 00:30:51,976
So right now
we've got the data.

725
00:30:51,976 --> 00:30:54,145
Wow.
both: Oh!

726
00:30:54,145 --> 00:30:56,648
- Whoo-hoo!
- Whoa!

727
00:30:56,648 --> 00:30:58,608
<i>So I thought
this was pretty cool.</i>

728
00:30:58,608 --> 00:31:01,820
And I said, OK, let's see
if we can't put this in space.

729
00:31:03,363 --> 00:31:05,407
<i>We found a cheap way
to have them</i>

730
00:31:05,407 --> 00:31:07,283
<i>thrown out
of the Space Station.</i>

731
00:31:07,283 --> 00:31:09,494
We stitched together
a whole picture of the Earth

732
00:31:09,494 --> 00:31:11,287
that we had taken
on this phone

733
00:31:11,287 --> 00:31:13,748
that was just floating around
in space.

734
00:31:13,748 --> 00:31:15,917
<i>It was pretty poor resolution.</i>

735
00:31:15,917 --> 00:31:18,169
<i>But the spacecraft had cost
a few thousand dollars,</i>

736
00:31:18,169 --> 00:31:22,007
not a few million
or a few billion.

737
00:31:22,007 --> 00:31:23,800
<i>President Obama showed up.</i>

738
00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:25,301
<i>And I said, "I'd really like</i>

739
00:31:25,301 --> 00:31:27,262
<i>to show this guy
what we're doing."</i>

740
00:31:27,262 --> 00:31:29,597
I said, "Mr. President,
welcome to NASA Ames.

741
00:31:29,597 --> 00:31:32,183
We just launched the world's
cheapest satellites."

742
00:31:32,183 --> 00:31:33,852
And he stopped.

743
00:31:33,852 --> 00:31:36,021
<i>He said,
"How cheap were they?"</i>

744
00:31:36,021 --> 00:31:38,440
And I said, "Well,
two of them were $4,000,

745
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:39,774
and one was $10,000."

746
00:31:39,774 --> 00:31:41,860
<i>Without missing a beat,
he looks at me and says,</i>

747
00:31:41,860 --> 00:31:44,487
"We're giving you guys
too much money."

748
00:31:44,487 --> 00:31:46,531
<i>[camera shutter clicking]</i>

749
00:31:46,531 --> 00:31:51,286
<i>We left NASA in earnest
in mid-2011 to start Planet.</i>

750
00:31:51,286 --> 00:31:53,747
<i>We really said, fuck it.</i>

751
00:31:53,747 --> 00:31:55,957
Let's build something
in a different way.

752
00:31:55,957 --> 00:31:58,043
<i>[soft dramatic music]</i>

753
00:31:58,043 --> 00:32:00,503
<i>Within 12 months,
we built our first</i>

754
00:32:00,503 --> 00:32:04,090
<i>fully integrated satellite.</i>

755
00:32:04,090 --> 00:32:08,636
This is one of the earliest
spacecraft we ever made.

756
00:32:08,636 --> 00:32:11,431
Yep. This is a CubeSat.

757
00:32:11,431 --> 00:32:14,517
All that it is, is just a--

758
00:32:14,517 --> 00:32:16,770
it's a really nice camera.

759
00:32:16,770 --> 00:32:19,022
So this antenna,
which you can actually see

760
00:32:19,022 --> 00:32:20,732
is made of a tape measure--

761
00:32:20,732 --> 00:32:22,776
NASA would spend
millions and millions

762
00:32:22,776 --> 00:32:26,571
on a typical antenna
for a spacecraft.

763
00:32:26,571 --> 00:32:29,908
We cut up a tape measure
that probably cost us $2.50

764
00:32:29,908 --> 00:32:32,577
from a hardware store.

765
00:32:32,577 --> 00:32:35,372
<i>When we were
thinking through</i>

766
00:32:35,372 --> 00:32:37,582
<i>why we were doing this,</i>

767
00:32:37,582 --> 00:32:40,168
<i>what benefit
would come from it,</i>

768
00:32:40,168 --> 00:32:42,379
the primary use case
that we wanted to do

769
00:32:42,379 --> 00:32:44,255
was to stop deforestation.

770
00:32:44,255 --> 00:32:46,591
<i>We designed these satellites</i>

771
00:32:46,591 --> 00:32:48,927
so that they could just about
see an individual tree.

772
00:32:48,927 --> 00:32:51,513
<i>It was, like, 2:00 or 3:00
in the morning.</i>

773
00:32:51,513 --> 00:32:53,390
We got
our very first picture back.

774
00:32:53,390 --> 00:32:56,309
Robbie actually just came
and blasted into my room

775
00:32:56,309 --> 00:32:59,646
and jumped on top of me
with this picture.

776
00:32:59,646 --> 00:33:01,981
This is
the very first picture

777
00:33:01,981 --> 00:33:04,359
<i>that ever came down from space</i>

778
00:33:04,359 --> 00:33:07,779
<i>that we took with our team
at Planet.</i>

779
00:33:07,779 --> 00:33:09,656
You can do
all the calculations,

780
00:33:09,656 --> 00:33:10,865
and then you're never sure

781
00:33:10,865 --> 00:33:12,909
it's actually gonna work, right?

782
00:33:12,909 --> 00:33:15,662
And it did,
and everything worked.

783
00:33:15,662 --> 00:33:17,956
I mean, we were over the moon.

784
00:33:20,291 --> 00:33:22,460
<i>We realized, with lots
of little spacecraft,</i>

785
00:33:22,460 --> 00:33:24,295
<i>we could do
more rapid observation</i>

786
00:33:24,295 --> 00:33:26,798
<i>of the entire Earth.</i>

787
00:33:26,798 --> 00:33:28,967
<i>The Earth is
constantly changing.</i>

788
00:33:28,967 --> 00:33:30,969
It's changing
on days timescales

789
00:33:30,969 --> 00:33:32,303
with human activity.

790
00:33:32,303 --> 00:33:34,139
And the satellite imagery
we have of it today

791
00:33:34,139 --> 00:33:37,267
<i>is typically years old.</i>

792
00:33:37,267 --> 00:33:39,978
<i>Satellites like these
have done an amazing job</i>

793
00:33:39,978 --> 00:33:41,980
<i>at helping us
to understand our planet.</i>

794
00:33:41,980 --> 00:33:45,650
But if we want to understand
it much more regularly...

795
00:33:45,650 --> 00:33:48,236
we need lots of satellites.

796
00:33:48,236 --> 00:33:50,488
<i>What we'd ideally want
is images</i>

797
00:33:50,488 --> 00:33:52,407
<i>of the whole planet every day.</i>

798
00:33:52,407 --> 00:33:54,159
<i>We're gonna launch</i>

799
00:33:54,159 --> 00:33:55,994
<i>more than a hundred
of these satellites.</i>

800
00:33:55,994 --> 00:33:58,038
It's gonna be the largest
constellation of satellites

801
00:33:58,038 --> 00:34:00,290
in human history.

802
00:34:00,290 --> 00:34:03,043
<i>T-minus 30 seconds.
On my mark.</i>

803
00:34:03,043 --> 00:34:05,545
<i>We've got 26 satellites
on this rocket.</i>

804
00:34:05,545 --> 00:34:06,963
It's a big deal.

805
00:34:06,963 --> 00:34:08,840
It's the largest number
of satellites we've ever put

806
00:34:08,840 --> 00:34:10,884
on a rocket, in fact,
the largest number

807
00:34:10,884 --> 00:34:13,762
of satellites that anyone has
ever put on a rocket.

808
00:34:13,762 --> 00:34:17,140
<i>And we have liftoff.</i>

809
00:34:17,140 --> 00:34:19,059
<i>It goes up.
Everything's looking good.</i>

810
00:34:19,059 --> 00:34:20,685
<i>And then I can
quickly see here--</i>

811
00:34:20,685 --> 00:34:21,936
I was like, oh, shit.

812
00:34:21,936 --> 00:34:23,855
[explosion booms]
- Oh, crap.

813
00:34:23,855 --> 00:34:25,523
Oh, God.

814
00:34:25,523 --> 00:34:27,150
Oh, God!

815
00:34:27,150 --> 00:34:28,443
Oh. And that's the end.

816
00:34:28,443 --> 00:34:30,487
<i>- Wow.
- What was that?</i>

817
00:34:30,487 --> 00:34:33,865
<i>And that looks like
an explosion of that rocket.</i>

818
00:34:33,865 --> 00:34:35,700
<i>That looked
like something really--</i>

819
00:34:35,700 --> 00:34:37,202
That looked like
something went definitely

820
00:34:37,202 --> 00:34:38,203
very wrong with that launch.

821
00:34:38,203 --> 00:34:40,997
Whoa!
Jesus!

822
00:34:40,997 --> 00:34:44,084
[indistinct shouting]

823
00:34:45,543 --> 00:34:47,712
Planet lost
all their satellites.

824
00:34:47,712 --> 00:34:50,048
<i>Will and Robbie saw</i>

825
00:34:50,048 --> 00:34:51,883
<i>there's all these
rocket startups</i>

826
00:34:51,883 --> 00:34:53,843
appearing around the world.

827
00:34:53,843 --> 00:34:57,013
<i>Chris was at Ames,
and then he left to go start</i>

828
00:34:57,013 --> 00:34:59,015
<i>this company called Nebula.</i>

829
00:34:59,015 --> 00:35:03,687
The company did not do great,
and so Chris was out of work.

830
00:35:03,687 --> 00:35:05,814
<i>Planet brought him on
as a consultant</i>

831
00:35:05,814 --> 00:35:07,440
to go scour the world,

832
00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:09,401
find the best rockets
to fly on.

833
00:35:09,401 --> 00:35:11,611
<i>[soft dramatic music]</i>

834
00:35:11,611 --> 00:35:13,988
<i>I spent six months
traveling around the world,</i>

835
00:35:13,988 --> 00:35:15,740
<i>meeting all
the rocket companies.</i>

836
00:35:15,740 --> 00:35:18,118
I was not impressed.

837
00:35:18,118 --> 00:35:20,745
<i>Chris came down
under the guises</i>

838
00:35:20,745 --> 00:35:24,541
of an independent
satellite consultant.

839
00:35:24,541 --> 00:35:26,668
<i>Peter Beck wanted
to fly Planet's satellites,</i>

840
00:35:26,668 --> 00:35:29,421
so he gave him
the top-end tour.

841
00:35:29,421 --> 00:35:31,589
Peter really went
out of his way

842
00:35:31,589 --> 00:35:33,049
to tell Chris everything.

843
00:35:33,049 --> 00:35:36,094
<i>I suggested to Planet
that they give Rocket Lab</i>

844
00:35:36,094 --> 00:35:37,470
<i>a contract, and they did.</i>

845
00:35:37,470 --> 00:35:40,932
But I also saw how expensive
that rocket would be.

846
00:35:40,932 --> 00:35:44,436
I just saw an opportunity
to do something different here.

847
00:35:44,436 --> 00:35:48,106
They like to talk about
the kind of massive amounts

848
00:35:48,106 --> 00:35:51,234
of power and massive
amounts of propellant

849
00:35:51,234 --> 00:35:53,403
and the massive scale and--

850
00:35:53,403 --> 00:35:55,363
<i>Chris came back
to the United States.</i>

851
00:35:55,363 --> 00:35:57,240
A couple of months passed,
and then, suddenly,

852
00:35:57,240 --> 00:35:58,616
Chris had a rocket company.

853
00:35:58,616 --> 00:36:00,869
<i>Naturally,
we were quite surprised</i>

854
00:36:00,869 --> 00:36:03,038
a few months later
when Astra popped up.

855
00:36:03,038 --> 00:36:04,706
<i>His idea was basically</i>

856
00:36:04,706 --> 00:36:07,250
to undercut Rocket Lab
on price.

857
00:36:07,250 --> 00:36:09,544
How cheap and crappy
can we make a rocket?

858
00:36:09,544 --> 00:36:12,172
I'm somebody who wants
to actually succeed

859
00:36:12,172 --> 00:36:15,383
from a business perspective,
versus just make big toys.

860
00:36:15,383 --> 00:36:18,053
♪ ♪

861
00:36:18,053 --> 00:36:19,763
<i>I met Adam in a garage.</i>

862
00:36:19,763 --> 00:36:21,348
<i>I was blown away.</i>

863
00:36:21,348 --> 00:36:23,183
You know,
he's the rocket scientist.

864
00:36:23,183 --> 00:36:26,686
<i>He's one of the most brilliant
people you'll ever meet.</i>

865
00:36:26,686 --> 00:36:28,480
I showed him around,
talked about stuff, et cetera.

866
00:36:28,480 --> 00:36:32,275
And he was, I think,
you know, pretty excited.

867
00:36:32,275 --> 00:36:33,985
<i>A rocket a day was</i>

868
00:36:33,985 --> 00:36:35,987
in the very first
pitch presentation

869
00:36:35,987 --> 00:36:37,489
that Chris and I did.

870
00:36:37,489 --> 00:36:40,658
<i>They wanted to make a rocket
faster than anyone</i>

871
00:36:40,658 --> 00:36:42,285
<i>had ever made a rocket
in history.</i>

872
00:36:42,285 --> 00:36:44,329
<i>They wanted it to be
the cheapest rocket</i>

873
00:36:44,329 --> 00:36:45,497
<i>that had ever been made.</i>

874
00:36:45,497 --> 00:36:47,832
And they wanted to make
an actual factory

875
00:36:47,832 --> 00:36:50,168
that could pump
these rockets out every day,

876
00:36:50,168 --> 00:36:52,837
just like you'd make a car
or something like that.

877
00:36:52,837 --> 00:36:55,840
This had never been done
in the industry.

878
00:36:55,840 --> 00:36:59,010
- There we go.
- [grunts] Be careful.

879
00:36:59,010 --> 00:37:02,347
There's broken glass
everywhere.

880
00:37:02,347 --> 00:37:05,266
I think people came in here
and played war.

881
00:37:07,227 --> 00:37:11,231
It's a perfect, like, set
for a zombie-apocalypse movie.

882
00:37:11,231 --> 00:37:13,066
If we're gonna make
a rocket a day

883
00:37:13,066 --> 00:37:15,527
really, really affordably,
we've got to have

884
00:37:15,527 --> 00:37:17,362
really inexpensive facilities.

885
00:37:17,362 --> 00:37:18,905
The challenge is,
we deal with all this stuff.

886
00:37:18,905 --> 00:37:22,325
This is actually--
it's all lead paint.

887
00:37:22,325 --> 00:37:24,202
[laughs]

888
00:37:24,202 --> 00:37:26,871
And people take this shit
really seriously, right?

889
00:37:26,871 --> 00:37:29,124
But we've got to deal
with this stuff

890
00:37:29,124 --> 00:37:31,167
and cover it and repaint it

891
00:37:31,167 --> 00:37:33,169
and clean the building up
a little bit,

892
00:37:33,169 --> 00:37:35,672
or people get stressed.

893
00:37:35,672 --> 00:37:37,215
<i>Credit where credit's due.</i>

894
00:37:37,215 --> 00:37:39,300
<i>Chris is
an amazing salesperson.</i>

895
00:37:39,300 --> 00:37:41,678
In this industry,
it takes a bit of that.

896
00:37:41,678 --> 00:37:42,971
[laughter]

897
00:37:42,971 --> 00:37:44,305
It's a better view
over here.

898
00:37:44,305 --> 00:37:46,057
<i>You know, he's able to be
very successful</i>

899
00:37:46,057 --> 00:37:47,225
<i>at raising capital.</i>

900
00:37:47,225 --> 00:37:49,060
- This is lead paint.
- OK.

901
00:37:49,060 --> 00:37:51,062
- [blows raspberry]
- Oh.

902
00:37:51,062 --> 00:37:52,856
<i>We've got
a lot of work to do</i>

903
00:37:52,856 --> 00:37:54,399
<i>to catch up with Rocket Lab.</i>

904
00:37:54,399 --> 00:37:57,068
<i>It's a race right now,
and we're trying to catch up.</i>

905
00:37:57,068 --> 00:37:59,070
What do you think?
- I love it.

906
00:37:59,070 --> 00:38:01,698
It kind of brings
postapocalyptic chic

907
00:38:01,698 --> 00:38:05,994
and spacesuit together
in kind of a alien way,

908
00:38:05,994 --> 00:38:10,290
but an optimistic alien way,
in black.

909
00:38:10,290 --> 00:38:13,960
<i>2017,
rocket's far enough along.</i>

910
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:16,212
<i>Chris decides to have
a party to show everybody</i>

911
00:38:16,212 --> 00:38:18,006
<i>the rocket for the first time.</i>

912
00:38:18,006 --> 00:38:22,218
All right, welcome
to Dawn of Space, everyone.

913
00:38:22,218 --> 00:38:23,553
<i>There's lots of people</i>

914
00:38:23,553 --> 00:38:25,722
<i>that have raised
tremendous amounts of money</i>

915
00:38:25,722 --> 00:38:27,891
on the back
of fantasifull promises.

916
00:38:27,891 --> 00:38:30,310
<i>The great thing
about this industry</i>

917
00:38:30,310 --> 00:38:33,605
<i>is that you can make
all the promises in the world.</i>

918
00:38:33,605 --> 00:38:36,900
But at some point,
you actually have to deliver.

919
00:38:36,900 --> 00:38:38,526
Thank you all for coming.

920
00:38:38,526 --> 00:38:41,529
And the next time we have
a party, we will be in space.

921
00:38:41,529 --> 00:38:45,283
[all cheering]

922
00:38:45,283 --> 00:38:49,704
<i>♪ ♪</i>

923
00:38:53,833 --> 00:38:55,752
<i>People had started
hearing rumors</i>

924
00:38:55,752 --> 00:38:58,797
<i>that this guy in New Zealand
is doing interesting things.</i>

925
00:38:58,797 --> 00:39:01,966
<i>When Peter ends up
going to Silicon Valley,</i>

926
00:39:01,966 --> 00:39:06,137
all these investors call around
to find out who knows what.

927
00:39:06,137 --> 00:39:09,474
<i>Pete Worden,
he'd caught wind of Peter.</i>

928
00:39:09,474 --> 00:39:12,811
I mean, he's maybe one of the
best engineers I've ever met.

929
00:39:14,270 --> 00:39:15,563
This guy is the real deal.

930
00:39:15,563 --> 00:39:17,482
As he's trying
to raise money,

931
00:39:17,482 --> 00:39:21,778
this vote of confidence from
Pete Worden has a huge effect.

932
00:39:21,778 --> 00:39:25,365
<i>The first money hit the bank
January 2014.</i>

933
00:39:25,365 --> 00:39:27,450
And we had a rocket
on the pad in 2017.

934
00:39:27,450 --> 00:39:31,204
<i>[soft dramatic music]</i>

935
00:39:31,204 --> 00:39:34,082
<i>2017, Rocket Lab tries
to launch for the first time.</i>

936
00:39:34,082 --> 00:39:35,709
It's called, like, "a test."

937
00:39:35,709 --> 00:39:38,211
It's not taking
a commercial payload.

938
00:39:38,211 --> 00:39:42,257
<i>The most important thing was
it just get clear of the pad.</i>

939
00:39:42,257 --> 00:39:43,967
That's kind of
your worst nightmare--

940
00:39:43,967 --> 00:39:45,802
[crowd shouting]

941
00:39:45,802 --> 00:39:47,137
<i>Something coming up
off the pad,</i>

942
00:39:47,137 --> 00:39:49,514
<i>then coming back down
on the pad.</i>

943
00:39:49,514 --> 00:39:52,642
<i>That is instant
company extermination.</i>

944
00:39:52,642 --> 00:39:56,855
We did not have the resources
to rebuild a pad.

945
00:39:56,855 --> 00:39:59,858
<i>When you're testing
your rocket in the early days,</i>

946
00:39:59,858 --> 00:40:02,527
<i>you pretty much just want
to get it off the pad.</i>

947
00:40:02,527 --> 00:40:06,031
<i>The goal is to get enough
flight time to pull some data.</i>

948
00:40:06,031 --> 00:40:07,824
<i>And if you're lucky,</i>

949
00:40:07,824 --> 00:40:10,994
<i>the rocket will happen to get
to space.</i>

950
00:40:10,994 --> 00:40:14,164
<i>But, basically, nobody gets
into orbit on their first try.</i>

951
00:40:14,164 --> 00:40:17,208
<i>It just--it doesn't happen.</i>

952
00:40:19,878 --> 00:40:22,255
<i>It takes
100 times more energy</i>

953
00:40:22,255 --> 00:40:24,132
to put an object in orbit

954
00:40:24,132 --> 00:40:27,177
versus just going
up into space.

955
00:40:27,177 --> 00:40:28,845
<i>It's not just up.</i>

956
00:40:28,845 --> 00:40:30,388
<i>You see rockets
as they launch.</i>

957
00:40:30,388 --> 00:40:32,640
<i>They go up and then over.</i>

958
00:40:32,640 --> 00:40:34,434
Well, the over part's
the hard part

959
00:40:34,434 --> 00:40:38,688
because you've got to achieve
a velocity capable of shooting

960
00:40:38,688 --> 00:40:41,900
the rocket around the planet.

961
00:40:41,900 --> 00:40:44,027
<i>And if you don't have
enough velocity,</i>

962
00:40:44,027 --> 00:40:46,154
<i>it comes right back down.</i>

963
00:40:49,908 --> 00:40:52,327
<i>When it actually came time
to launch,</i>

964
00:40:52,327 --> 00:40:53,828
it was a big, big day.

965
00:40:53,828 --> 00:40:56,081
<i>Everyone was confident
that it was gonna work.</i>

966
00:40:56,081 --> 00:40:59,000
But also, nobody knew what
the hell it was gonna do.

967
00:41:04,255 --> 00:41:06,216
- Yes! Yes!
- Fuck, yes!

968
00:41:08,009 --> 00:41:09,844
<i>It was a nominal
clean liftoff.</i>

969
00:41:09,844 --> 00:41:11,554
<i>Engine performance
was nominal.</i>

970
00:41:11,554 --> 00:41:13,181
<i>Everything was nominal.</i>

971
00:41:13,181 --> 00:41:15,308
<i>It had a nominal separation</i>

972
00:41:15,308 --> 00:41:17,977
<i>and an ignition
of the second stage engine.</i>

973
00:41:19,604 --> 00:41:23,316
The rocket does
fantastically well.

974
00:41:23,316 --> 00:41:24,984
<i>It's made it to space,</i>

975
00:41:24,984 --> 00:41:26,945
<i>and it's heading
towards orbit.</i>

976
00:41:26,945 --> 00:41:30,031
At that point,
you've achieved more than 99%

977
00:41:30,031 --> 00:41:33,076
of most countries
on their first rocket.

978
00:41:33,076 --> 00:41:35,286
<i>We're literally,
like, 200 seconds away</i>

979
00:41:35,286 --> 00:41:37,205
<i>from reaching orbit.</i>

980
00:41:37,205 --> 00:41:39,249
The folks that are in charge
of making sure

981
00:41:39,249 --> 00:41:41,334
that the rocket flies safely

982
00:41:41,334 --> 00:41:43,920
<i>shut the engine down
by mistake.</i>

983
00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:47,757
The safety officer
actually blew up

984
00:41:47,757 --> 00:41:50,635
Rocket Lab's first rocket.

985
00:41:50,635 --> 00:41:54,889
We were literally
seconds away from orbit.

986
00:41:57,559 --> 00:41:59,978
<i>That would have been
the first time in history</i>

987
00:41:59,978 --> 00:42:03,231
that a new rocket had flown
successfully on its first try.

988
00:42:03,231 --> 00:42:04,983
All right,
to other news now,

989
00:42:04,983 --> 00:42:07,485
and a truly spectacular feat
for New Zealand.

990
00:42:07,485 --> 00:42:09,320
We've joined the space race.

991
00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:11,448
<i>One small step
for Rocket Lab,</i>

992
00:42:11,448 --> 00:42:15,493
<i>one giant leap
for New Zealand aerospace.</i>

993
00:42:15,493 --> 00:42:22,167
♪ ♪

994
00:42:22,167 --> 00:42:24,919
<i>In 2017, in India,</i>

995
00:42:24,919 --> 00:42:29,299
<i>Planet Labs launched 88
of their Dove satellites...</i>

996
00:42:29,299 --> 00:42:30,550
<i>a record number of satellites</i>

997
00:42:30,550 --> 00:42:33,970
to put in space
by many, many times.

998
00:42:33,970 --> 00:42:35,555
<i>It's the largest
constellation</i>

999
00:42:35,555 --> 00:42:37,891
<i>of Earth-imaging satellites
in human history,</i>

1000
00:42:37,891 --> 00:42:39,642
<i>and it's gonna provide
a completely radical</i>

1001
00:42:39,642 --> 00:42:43,313
<i>new dataset
about our changing planet.</i>

1002
00:42:43,313 --> 00:42:46,024
And we have decided,
therefore, that the best thing

1003
00:42:46,024 --> 00:42:48,109
that we can do
with our data is to ensure

1004
00:42:48,109 --> 00:42:50,111
universal access to it.

1005
00:42:50,111 --> 00:42:52,113
We wanted to ensure
everyone can see it.

1006
00:42:52,113 --> 00:42:55,992
Thank you.
[applause]

1007
00:42:55,992 --> 00:42:59,162
<i>Planet was
the very first company ever</i>

1008
00:42:59,162 --> 00:43:00,997
<i>to be able to take photos
of every spot</i>

1009
00:43:00,997 --> 00:43:02,999
<i>on Earth every day.</i>

1010
00:43:02,999 --> 00:43:05,835
<i>And this is useful
for a lot of things.</i>

1011
00:43:05,835 --> 00:43:07,837
<i>You can gather
environmental data</i>

1012
00:43:07,837 --> 00:43:10,131
<i>around things
like deforestation,</i>

1013
00:43:10,131 --> 00:43:12,550
<i>land use, and drought,</i>

1014
00:43:12,550 --> 00:43:15,053
<i>and then
some very practical things</i>

1015
00:43:15,053 --> 00:43:19,724
<i>like helping a farmer decide
when to harvest their crops.</i>

1016
00:43:19,724 --> 00:43:21,518
We can actually tell
the crop type.

1017
00:43:21,518 --> 00:43:23,561
Is this corn or wheat
or soy or whatever?

1018
00:43:23,561 --> 00:43:25,522
<i>We can tell
how well it's doing,</i>

1019
00:43:25,522 --> 00:43:27,816
<i>where it needs to add water,</i>

1020
00:43:27,816 --> 00:43:30,235
an early sign
of a health problem,

1021
00:43:30,235 --> 00:43:34,239
<i>which can improve their
crop yields by 20% or 40%.</i>

1022
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:38,034
That can help feed
the planet more efficiently.

1023
00:43:38,034 --> 00:43:40,203
<i>The things
that we're already learning</i>

1024
00:43:40,203 --> 00:43:43,289
<i>about the Earth from Planet's
satellites are amazing.</i>

1025
00:43:43,289 --> 00:43:45,542
<i>It was a massive breakthrough.</i>

1026
00:43:45,542 --> 00:43:49,754
<i>They've changed the entire
satellite industry forever.</i>

1027
00:43:53,091 --> 00:43:59,264
<i>♪ ♪</i>

1028
00:43:59,264 --> 00:44:01,266
<i>So, in 15 months,
we incorporated a company.</i>

1029
00:44:01,266 --> 00:44:02,851
<i>We hired 75 engineers.</i>

1030
00:44:02,851 --> 00:44:04,602
<i>We built a development
facility, a test facility,</i>

1031
00:44:04,602 --> 00:44:07,105
<i>a manufacturing facility,
a mission control center,</i>

1032
00:44:07,105 --> 00:44:08,523
<i>designed and built a rocket,</i>

1033
00:44:08,523 --> 00:44:10,442
<i>and are about to fly it
next month.</i>

1034
00:44:10,442 --> 00:44:12,861
So, from zero--
like, no company--

1035
00:44:12,861 --> 00:44:14,904
[applause]
Thank you.

1036
00:44:14,904 --> 00:44:16,906
All right. Wait, hold on.
- NASA crew.

1037
00:44:16,906 --> 00:44:19,284
[camera shutter clicks]

1038
00:44:19,284 --> 00:44:20,535
Madman on the loose

1039
00:44:20,535 --> 00:44:24,372
with ICBM
pointed at San Francisco.

1040
00:44:24,372 --> 00:44:26,875
<i>We're taking the rocket
up to a small island</i>

1041
00:44:26,875 --> 00:44:29,002
<i>in the North Pacific,
and we're going to launch it.</i>

1042
00:44:29,002 --> 00:44:31,046
<i>And if we're able to do that,</i>

1043
00:44:31,046 --> 00:44:34,883
that will be
pretty historic, I think.

1044
00:44:34,883 --> 00:44:37,677
<i>In the United States,
most companies launch</i>

1045
00:44:37,677 --> 00:44:39,888
from Florida or California.

1046
00:44:39,888 --> 00:44:41,348
They're all government-owned.

1047
00:44:41,348 --> 00:44:44,434
<i>You have to fight
for attention and position</i>

1048
00:44:44,434 --> 00:44:46,561
<i>on these launch pads.</i>

1049
00:44:46,561 --> 00:44:48,980
<i>Astra's
this fledgling company.</i>

1050
00:44:50,607 --> 00:44:53,651
<i>Alaska is trying to attract
this commercial business,</i>

1051
00:44:53,651 --> 00:44:55,779
<i>and so they kind of roll out
the red carpet.</i>

1052
00:44:55,779 --> 00:44:58,281
Give them their own space.
Give them their own pad.

1053
00:44:58,281 --> 00:45:01,659
<i>♪ ♪</i>

1054
00:45:01,659 --> 00:45:03,328
<i>It's just like, go fly it.</i>

1055
00:45:03,328 --> 00:45:05,497
<i>Get data.
Whatever went wrong, we fix.</i>

1056
00:45:05,497 --> 00:45:07,665
<i>We do this again.</i>

1057
00:45:07,665 --> 00:45:09,918
But things were
just not working.

1058
00:45:09,918 --> 00:45:13,505
It's 60-miles-an-hour gusts
up here.

1059
00:45:13,505 --> 00:45:14,923
Barely staying alive.

1060
00:45:14,923 --> 00:45:18,927
<i>Having trouble
locating the QDs.</i>

1061
00:45:18,927 --> 00:45:22,263
Let's kill some helium!

1062
00:45:24,182 --> 00:45:28,144
<i>This went on for weeks
and weeks and weeks.</i>

1063
00:45:28,144 --> 00:45:29,979
Getting this guy
up off the pad

1064
00:45:29,979 --> 00:45:32,232
would be a pretty big win
for all of us.

1065
00:45:34,401 --> 00:45:36,778
<i>If we do launch the rocket
and it is successful,</i>

1066
00:45:36,778 --> 00:45:38,571
<i>it strengthens
our position considerably.</i>

1067
00:45:38,571 --> 00:45:41,116
<i>I do hate to see Rocket Lab
get a third launch off</i>

1068
00:45:41,116 --> 00:45:42,951
<i>before we get our first.</i>

1069
00:45:42,951 --> 00:45:44,828
<i>Ground close OV 107.</i>

1070
00:45:44,828 --> 00:45:46,413
[indistinct chatter]

1071
00:45:46,413 --> 00:45:49,040
[laughs]
Thanks for coming out.

1072
00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:50,792
Hey, Scott.
- Good luck.

1073
00:45:50,792 --> 00:45:52,502
We're gonna try to put
something in space.

1074
00:45:52,502 --> 00:45:55,171
- Let's do it.
- Or blow it up trying.

1075
00:45:55,171 --> 00:45:57,882
This is Chris Kemp
at mission control

1076
00:45:57,882 --> 00:45:59,634
in Alameda, California.

1077
00:45:59,634 --> 00:46:02,554
<i>If we're able to achieve
our objective</i>

1078
00:46:02,554 --> 00:46:04,180
of getting the rocket
off the pad,

1079
00:46:04,180 --> 00:46:05,807
we'd like to fly
for as long as possible.

1080
00:46:05,807 --> 00:46:08,685
<i>All right. Tango.
Watch P-O-T.</i>

1081
00:46:08,685 --> 00:46:11,396
Call Abort if you see it
exceed 20 PSI.

1082
00:46:11,396 --> 00:46:13,732
Rocket companies get
these little windows of time

1083
00:46:13,732 --> 00:46:15,233
when the weather looks right.

1084
00:46:15,233 --> 00:46:17,402
The government's
approved your launch.

1085
00:46:17,402 --> 00:46:20,155
<i>35, 34, 33,</i>

1086
00:46:20,155 --> 00:46:22,741
<i>32, 31, 30...</i>

1087
00:46:24,743 --> 00:46:26,619
<i>[person speaks indistinctly
over radio]</i>

1088
00:46:26,619 --> 00:46:29,039
<i>This is TC on countdown.
We are at a hold.</i>

1089
00:46:29,039 --> 00:46:30,957
- Is that bad?
- No.

1090
00:46:30,957 --> 00:46:35,378
<i>32, 31, 30...</i>

1091
00:46:35,378 --> 00:46:40,175
Hold, hold, hold.
[all groaning]

1092
00:46:40,175 --> 00:46:42,135
[indistinct chatter]

1093
00:46:42,135 --> 00:46:43,803
- It's the whiskey.
- It's hard shit.

1094
00:46:43,803 --> 00:46:45,430
It's hard shit.
- Yeah. Thank you.

1095
00:46:45,430 --> 00:46:47,974
- It's hard shit.
- All right.

1096
00:46:47,974 --> 00:46:49,517
<i>We've aborted.</i>

1097
00:46:49,517 --> 00:46:52,228
This pattern repeated itself
over and over and over again.

1098
00:46:52,228 --> 00:46:53,563
That sucks.

1099
00:46:53,563 --> 00:46:55,440
<i>You have to take
the whole thing down,</i>

1100
00:46:55,440 --> 00:46:57,776
go try to find
this small, tiny problem,

1101
00:46:57,776 --> 00:47:00,445
fix it, do this
again and again.

1102
00:47:00,445 --> 00:47:03,239
<i>This went on
for so many weeks.</i>

1103
00:47:03,239 --> 00:47:05,033
For those of you
just tuning in,

1104
00:47:05,033 --> 00:47:07,285
we had several
launch attempts yesterday.

1105
00:47:07,285 --> 00:47:10,372
<i>This is our last day
in our launch window.</i>

1106
00:47:14,501 --> 00:47:16,252
We're gonna get it this time.

1107
00:47:16,252 --> 00:47:17,462
- Hey.
- It's gonna happen.

1108
00:47:17,462 --> 00:47:18,713
- Yay.
- All right.

1109
00:47:18,713 --> 00:47:20,048
- It's gonna happen.
- I think so, too.

1110
00:47:20,048 --> 00:47:22,258
<i>- Counting down.
- Counting down.</i>

1111
00:47:22,258 --> 00:47:26,805
all: Ten, nine,
eight, seven, six,

1112
00:47:26,805 --> 00:47:30,058
five, four, three,

1113
00:47:30,058 --> 00:47:32,268
two, one.

1114
00:47:32,268 --> 00:47:34,354
Go.

1115
00:47:34,354 --> 00:47:35,855
- Yeah.
- Yeah!

1116
00:47:35,855 --> 00:47:39,484
[all cheering]

1117
00:47:47,826 --> 00:47:50,995
[indistinct chatter]

1118
00:47:53,373 --> 00:47:55,041
That was awesome.

1119
00:47:55,041 --> 00:47:58,878
[indistinct chatter]

1120
00:47:58,878 --> 00:48:00,714
Nice.

1121
00:48:02,215 --> 00:48:04,092
Wow.

1122
00:48:04,092 --> 00:48:06,344
<i>It ends up
finally launching,</i>

1123
00:48:06,344 --> 00:48:07,846
goes for about 27 seconds.

1124
00:48:07,846 --> 00:48:10,348
<i>It definitely didn't
reach orbit.</i>

1125
00:48:10,348 --> 00:48:12,183
<i>It didn't reach space.</i>

1126
00:48:12,183 --> 00:48:15,103
<i>But they were able to get
some data from it.</i>

1127
00:48:15,103 --> 00:48:16,813
Thank you again
for all your support.

1128
00:48:16,813 --> 00:48:18,023
It was a successful flight.

1129
00:48:18,023 --> 00:48:21,860
It's looking like we got

1130
00:48:21,860 --> 00:48:25,196
plus or minus 10 seconds
from our 30-second objective.

1131
00:48:26,948 --> 00:48:29,868
<i>[upbeat music]</i>

1132
00:48:29,868 --> 00:48:33,413
<i>♪ ♪</i>

1133
00:48:33,413 --> 00:48:37,917
[applause]

1134
00:48:37,917 --> 00:48:40,670
<i>I can only imagine
going back in time</i>

1135
00:48:40,670 --> 00:48:42,672
and tapping on the shoulder
and whispering

1136
00:48:42,672 --> 00:48:44,341
into that little boy's ear,

1137
00:48:44,341 --> 00:48:45,675
"One day, that Captain Kirk's

1138
00:48:45,675 --> 00:48:47,552
gonna open
your rocket factory."

1139
00:48:47,552 --> 00:48:49,137
<i>[laughter]</i>

1140
00:48:49,137 --> 00:48:52,557
What a wonderful place
to be.

1141
00:48:52,557 --> 00:48:55,226
<i>In November of 2018,</i>

1142
00:48:55,226 --> 00:48:57,270
<i>they fly their first
commercial mission.</i>

1143
00:48:57,270 --> 00:48:59,773
So this launch's got
seven payloads aboard

1144
00:48:59,773 --> 00:49:01,524
<i>from a variety
of different customers.</i>

1145
00:49:01,524 --> 00:49:03,485
<i>It's called
"It's Business Time,"</i>

1146
00:49:03,485 --> 00:49:05,653
in honor of
"Flight of the Conchords."

1147
00:49:05,653 --> 00:49:08,907
both: ♪ It's business time ♪

1148
00:49:08,907 --> 00:49:10,742
<i>Now we had paying customers.</i>

1149
00:49:10,742 --> 00:49:13,244
It is business time,
in all sense of the words.

1150
00:49:13,244 --> 00:49:16,081
There was a lot,
lot riding on that.

1151
00:49:16,081 --> 00:49:17,582
If you're declaring
to the world

1152
00:49:17,582 --> 00:49:19,167
that you have a product
that works,

1153
00:49:19,167 --> 00:49:20,752
it better bloody work.

1154
00:49:20,752 --> 00:49:23,755
<i>[tense music]</i>

1155
00:49:23,755 --> 00:49:26,591
<i>♪ ♪</i>

1156
00:49:26,591 --> 00:49:28,593
<i>I hate launches.</i>

1157
00:49:28,593 --> 00:49:30,512
<i>I really do not enjoy them.</i>

1158
00:49:31,930 --> 00:49:34,224
These early launches,
like, if they go badly,

1159
00:49:34,224 --> 00:49:35,475
that's the end.

1160
00:49:38,770 --> 00:49:40,480
Flight mode.

1161
00:49:40,480 --> 00:49:43,024
Ten, nine, eight,

1162
00:49:43,024 --> 00:49:46,903
seven, six, five, four...

1163
00:49:46,903 --> 00:49:50,699
- Ignition.
- Three, two, one.

1164
00:49:52,992 --> 00:49:55,954
[cheers and applause]

1165
00:49:55,954 --> 00:50:02,377
<i>♪ ♪</i>

1166
00:50:04,004 --> 00:50:06,798
<i>Altitude is 200 kilometers.</i>

1167
00:50:06,798 --> 00:50:10,218
<i>The best time of a launch
is a squiggly graph.</i>

1168
00:50:10,218 --> 00:50:12,470
<i>See a nice, straight line,</i>

1169
00:50:12,470 --> 00:50:14,597
and then it'll give
a wee squiggle.

1170
00:50:14,597 --> 00:50:16,891
<i>And that wee squiggle is
the reaction moment</i>

1171
00:50:16,891 --> 00:50:19,394
<i>of when you separate off
the payload.</i>

1172
00:50:19,394 --> 00:50:21,646
That is the only good thing
about a launch.

1173
00:50:21,646 --> 00:50:23,773
Oh, very nice.

1174
00:50:23,773 --> 00:50:26,860
[cheers and applause]

1175
00:50:29,696 --> 00:50:31,990
<i>The Rocket Lab
Electron launch vehicle</i>

1176
00:50:31,990 --> 00:50:36,619
<i>reached a successful orbit
on only its second mission.</i>

1177
00:50:36,619 --> 00:50:39,122
They've come out of the gate
looking really good.

1178
00:50:39,122 --> 00:50:43,460
[applause]

1179
00:50:43,460 --> 00:50:45,545
Another perfect
bloody flight.

1180
00:50:45,545 --> 00:50:47,339
[laughter]

1181
00:50:47,339 --> 00:50:48,965
This one took a while
to get off the pad,

1182
00:50:48,965 --> 00:50:51,092
but instantaneous T0.

1183
00:50:51,092 --> 00:50:54,304
Perfect flight.
Nice, perfect, nominal orbit.

1184
00:50:54,304 --> 00:50:56,890
And I don't--fuck,
I don't know what to say.

1185
00:50:56,890 --> 00:50:58,475
[laughter]

1186
00:50:58,475 --> 00:51:00,268
But, yeah.

1187
00:51:00,268 --> 00:51:02,062
Let's do it again
in a few weeks.

1188
00:51:02,062 --> 00:51:06,399
[laughter,
cheers, and applause]

1189
00:51:11,446 --> 00:51:12,447
Hi, everyone.

1190
00:51:12,447 --> 00:51:13,990
<i>For those of you
just joining us,</i>

1191
00:51:13,990 --> 00:51:15,700
<i>this is the first
launch attempt</i>

1192
00:51:15,700 --> 00:51:17,369
<i>of our version 2.0 rocket.</i>

1193
00:51:17,369 --> 00:51:18,995
I was just informed
of the range.

1194
00:51:18,995 --> 00:51:22,374
<i>Rocket 2, you had a bunch
of ex-SpaceX people come in.</i>

1195
00:51:22,374 --> 00:51:24,876
They start to play
this major role.

1196
00:51:24,876 --> 00:51:26,961
<i>Chris Thompson,
one of the SpaceX,</i>

1197
00:51:26,961 --> 00:51:29,214
<i>like, early founding team,
he's the lead.</i>

1198
00:51:29,214 --> 00:51:31,883
It's like, the adult
supervision has arrived.

1199
00:51:31,883 --> 00:51:34,803
Five, four, three,

1200
00:51:34,803 --> 00:51:37,639
two, one, zero.

1201
00:51:37,639 --> 00:51:40,350
<i>♪ ♪</i>

1202
00:51:40,350 --> 00:51:44,938
No fire. Abort.

1203
00:51:44,938 --> 00:51:48,108
This is a better outcome
than having the rocket explode.

1204
00:51:48,108 --> 00:51:49,234
[chuckles]

1205
00:51:49,234 --> 00:51:51,695
<i>all:
Five, four,</i>

1206
00:51:51,695 --> 00:51:55,156
three, two, one.

1207
00:51:55,156 --> 00:51:57,325
- Zero.
- Go!

1208
00:51:57,325 --> 00:52:00,286
- Why isn't it going?
- Do you see it?

1209
00:52:00,286 --> 00:52:01,621
It's going?

1210
00:52:01,621 --> 00:52:03,498
It's not going.

1211
00:52:03,498 --> 00:52:05,583
[indistinct chatter]

1212
00:52:07,752 --> 00:52:10,755
<i>No fire. Abort.</i>

1213
00:52:10,755 --> 00:52:13,008
- What's this?
- It's my mom.

1214
00:52:13,008 --> 00:52:14,342
Nice.

1215
00:52:14,342 --> 00:52:16,261
"Hope you find the problem
with the igniters."

1216
00:52:16,261 --> 00:52:18,930
[both laugh]

1217
00:52:20,932 --> 00:52:22,892
We can't launch because
there's a boat in the way.

1218
00:52:22,892 --> 00:52:24,769
<i>You have to put out
a notice--</i>

1219
00:52:24,769 --> 00:52:26,563
clear out of the area

1220
00:52:26,563 --> 00:52:28,189
where debris might fall
from this thing.

1221
00:52:28,189 --> 00:52:30,358
<i>There's inevitably
some ship captain</i>

1222
00:52:30,358 --> 00:52:32,444
who just doesn't pay attention
to any of this.

1223
00:52:32,444 --> 00:52:33,903
They're not moving.

1224
00:52:33,903 --> 00:52:35,613
- And...
- Not answering the radios.

1225
00:52:35,613 --> 00:52:37,198
Have we sent
the helicopter out?

1226
00:52:37,198 --> 00:52:39,409
<i>I want the name
of that captain.</i>

1227
00:52:39,409 --> 00:52:42,037
I'm gonna fucking crucify him.

1228
00:52:42,037 --> 00:52:44,164
Well, there's the boat
right there.

1229
00:52:44,164 --> 00:52:45,498
What is he? Tell me.

1230
00:52:45,498 --> 00:52:49,085
We're gonna file a lawsuit
against that captain.

1231
00:52:49,085 --> 00:52:51,629
You'll be hearing from me.
- We will find you.

1232
00:52:51,629 --> 00:52:53,923
[indistinct chatter]

1233
00:52:53,923 --> 00:52:56,009
I once sunk a person's ship
that pissed me off.

1234
00:52:56,009 --> 00:52:57,802
It's very easy to do.
You get a drill.

1235
00:52:57,802 --> 00:52:59,637
It's... [mimics drill buzzing]
- Yeah.

1236
00:52:59,637 --> 00:53:01,598
- It's gone.
- Yeah. So we'll use that.

1237
00:53:01,598 --> 00:53:03,183
Let's not get that--

1238
00:53:03,183 --> 00:53:06,394
- You're on video.
- Oh. Hi.

1239
00:53:06,394 --> 00:53:07,812
<i>- You want to keep pushing...
- I'm not pushing.</i>

1240
00:53:07,812 --> 00:53:09,230
<i>- I'll call right now...
- I'm not pushing.</i>

1241
00:53:09,230 --> 00:53:10,940
And say I'm done.
Let us do what we need to do.

1242
00:53:10,940 --> 00:53:13,068
That's all I'm trying
to do, Chris.

1243
00:53:13,068 --> 00:53:14,986
And I'm just trying to make
sure that your teams are

1244
00:53:14,986 --> 00:53:16,738
all on the same page
before I communicate

1245
00:53:16,738 --> 00:53:18,573
anything externally.
- Right. But--

1246
00:53:18,573 --> 00:53:19,991
- OK. So we're good?
- Yeah.

1247
00:53:19,991 --> 00:53:22,369
Great.
That's all I needed. Thanks.

1248
00:53:25,330 --> 00:53:27,248
<i>Hold, hold, hold.</i>

1249
00:53:27,248 --> 00:53:28,416
<i>Abort, abort hit.</i>

1250
00:53:28,416 --> 00:53:30,669
Daddy, why did,
like, the--why did it,

1251
00:53:30,669 --> 00:53:32,462
like, shut down right away?

1252
00:53:32,462 --> 00:53:33,838
The computer
that controls the engine...

1253
00:53:33,838 --> 00:53:36,007
- Yeah?
- Has a problem inside of it.

1254
00:53:36,007 --> 00:53:37,300
- Oh.
- And so it won't work.

1255
00:53:37,300 --> 00:53:38,968
Because you said once,

1256
00:53:38,968 --> 00:53:40,679
if the launch thing
didn't work,

1257
00:53:40,679 --> 00:53:42,597
you have to put new engines on.

1258
00:53:42,597 --> 00:53:45,558
Basically, you're doing that,
only with the computer?

1259
00:53:47,185 --> 00:53:49,396
<i>It is the last try</i>

1260
00:53:49,396 --> 00:53:51,773
<i>and the last hour
of the last day.</i>

1261
00:53:51,773 --> 00:53:54,234
It's looking good.

1262
00:53:54,234 --> 00:53:55,735
Fuck.

1263
00:53:55,735 --> 00:53:59,239
<i>Five, four, three,</i>

1264
00:53:59,239 --> 00:54:02,534
<i>two, one, zero.</i>

1265
00:54:05,036 --> 00:54:07,872
[all yelling]
- Yeah!

1266
00:54:07,872 --> 00:54:09,874
<i>Fuck, yeah.</i>

1267
00:54:09,874 --> 00:54:12,127
<i>Go, baby, go!</i>

1268
00:54:12,127 --> 00:54:13,503
<i>Hold, hold, hold.</i>

1269
00:54:13,503 --> 00:54:16,172
<i>Vehicle has experienced
an anomaly in flight.</i>

1270
00:54:22,303 --> 00:54:27,809
Rocket 2 comes pretty much
straight down on the pad.

1271
00:54:27,809 --> 00:54:30,812
<i>It's, like, the worst thing
that you can have happen.</i>

1272
00:54:30,812 --> 00:54:35,567
What message
do you want to put?

1273
00:54:35,567 --> 00:54:37,652
Um, what is it?

1274
00:54:37,652 --> 00:54:38,862
Just say--
- On the webcast page?

1275
00:54:38,862 --> 00:54:40,905
Just say,
"test concluded," you know?

1276
00:54:40,905 --> 00:54:43,074
Livecast has concluded.

1277
00:54:43,074 --> 00:54:45,493
<i>[somber music]</i>

1278
00:54:45,493 --> 00:54:46,870
Investors are texting.

1279
00:54:46,870 --> 00:54:51,166
<i>♪ ♪</i>

1280
00:54:51,166 --> 00:54:53,126
Hey, no worries. Yeah.

1281
00:54:53,126 --> 00:54:54,753
Just wanted to give you guys
an update.

1282
00:54:54,753 --> 00:54:56,254
So we didn't quite
hit 60 seconds.

1283
00:54:56,254 --> 00:54:57,714
But it was
a really beautiful flight.

1284
00:54:57,714 --> 00:55:02,510
<i>And we got about--we got
about 30 seconds of flight.</i>

1285
00:55:02,510 --> 00:55:04,512
<i>It was. Yeah.
The night launches are--</i>

1286
00:55:04,512 --> 00:55:07,515
[laughs] They're always
spectacular, so...

1287
00:55:07,515 --> 00:55:09,142
Well, I'll pass that
along to the team.

1288
00:55:09,142 --> 00:55:11,394
And thank you so much
for all your support.

1289
00:55:11,394 --> 00:55:12,854
I've got to, like,
thread a needle...

1290
00:55:12,854 --> 00:55:16,274
- Yeah.
- With this stuff because--

1291
00:55:16,274 --> 00:55:18,443
- It's gonna be tough for you.
- There's total success.

1292
00:55:18,443 --> 00:55:20,111
And then there's
total failure.

1293
00:55:20,111 --> 00:55:22,238
And this is--it's about--
- Yeah.

1294
00:55:22,238 --> 00:55:23,615
Well done.

1295
00:55:23,615 --> 00:55:25,533
This isn't total failure.
This isn't total success.

1296
00:55:25,533 --> 00:55:27,952
But it's about--
this is great, actually.

1297
00:55:27,952 --> 00:55:29,954
This is a great outcome.

1298
00:55:29,954 --> 00:55:32,207
- We launched.
- We launched. And we learned.

1299
00:55:32,207 --> 00:55:35,418
And--so this was a fantastic
outcome for the company.

1300
00:55:35,418 --> 00:55:37,879
And no one was hurt.

1301
00:55:37,879 --> 00:55:40,131
It didn't break anything.
The rocket flew.

1302
00:55:40,131 --> 00:55:41,466
- Got further.
- Got further.

1303
00:55:41,466 --> 00:55:42,967
So, I mean, period.

1304
00:55:42,967 --> 00:55:47,055
Like, full mic drop, this is
a great day for this company.

1305
00:55:47,055 --> 00:55:50,225
I'm, like, incredibly happy.

1306
00:55:50,225 --> 00:55:51,768
[clock ticking]

1307
00:55:51,768 --> 00:55:53,728
A private company
named Planet Labs has put

1308
00:55:53,728 --> 00:55:56,898
about 300 small satellites
into space,

1309
00:55:56,898 --> 00:55:59,317
enough to take a picture
of the entire land mass

1310
00:55:59,317 --> 00:56:01,778
of the Earth every day.

1311
00:56:01,778 --> 00:56:04,072
<i>Making it available
to everybody,</i>

1312
00:56:04,072 --> 00:56:08,451
people are gonna come up
with uses of that imagery

1313
00:56:08,451 --> 00:56:09,994
that you haven't imagined.

1314
00:56:09,994 --> 00:56:11,329
Dreamed of, yeah.

1315
00:56:11,329 --> 00:56:13,373
<i>[camera shutter clicking]</i>

1316
00:56:13,373 --> 00:56:15,458
<i>Now that there are
commercial companies</i>

1317
00:56:15,458 --> 00:56:17,711
<i>that have nothing to do
with governments</i>

1318
00:56:17,711 --> 00:56:20,422
snapping pictures
day after day,

1319
00:56:20,422 --> 00:56:23,299
we're starting to call it
open source intelligence.

1320
00:56:25,010 --> 00:56:27,637
<i>Commercial satellites
are changing</i>

1321
00:56:27,637 --> 00:56:29,931
<i>the way information
is consumed.</i>

1322
00:56:29,931 --> 00:56:34,185
They are giving us data
that we did not have access to

1323
00:56:34,185 --> 00:56:35,770
20 years ago.

1324
00:56:35,770 --> 00:56:38,857
<i>Governments and intelligence communities</i>

1325
00:56:38,857 --> 00:56:41,860
<i>have special equipment
to take photos.</i>

1326
00:56:41,860 --> 00:56:44,154
Those photos are restricted
and classified.

1327
00:56:44,154 --> 00:56:46,948
You can never look at 'em.

1328
00:56:46,948 --> 00:56:49,159
<i>In the run-up to the Iraq War,</i>

1329
00:56:49,159 --> 00:56:52,203
<i>the government disclosed
satellite images</i>

1330
00:56:52,203 --> 00:56:53,872
<i>and told the world,</i>

1331
00:56:53,872 --> 00:56:56,833
here's evidence that Iraq has
weapons of mass destruction,

1332
00:56:56,833 --> 00:57:00,086
<i>Because this fence
and this aluminum tube</i>

1333
00:57:00,086 --> 00:57:03,798
<i>kind of look like something
that had to do with weaponry.</i>

1334
00:57:03,798 --> 00:57:07,260
And they're kind of trying
to do A plus B equals F.

1335
00:57:07,260 --> 00:57:10,263
<i>This can't happen anymore.</i>

1336
00:57:10,263 --> 00:57:12,640
<i>Right now
if you gave me two images</i>

1337
00:57:12,640 --> 00:57:14,851
and you were a government,
I would buy 60 images

1338
00:57:14,851 --> 00:57:16,394
over the same time frame,

1339
00:57:16,394 --> 00:57:19,564
and I would tell you
what was happening.

1340
00:57:19,564 --> 00:57:22,901
<i>Everything in the world
has a visual signature.</i>

1341
00:57:22,901 --> 00:57:26,363
And if you can interpret it--
and not a lot of people can--

1342
00:57:26,363 --> 00:57:28,323
it's like you know a language,

1343
00:57:28,323 --> 00:57:30,909
and you can translate
for other people.

1344
00:57:30,909 --> 00:57:35,246
<i>I remember, in 2008,
I got a tip-off.</i>

1345
00:57:35,246 --> 00:57:37,374
<i>And they said,
"Hey, there's an underground</i>

1346
00:57:37,374 --> 00:57:39,250
<i>submarine base in China."</i>

1347
00:57:39,250 --> 00:57:41,211
I didn't think that was true
because it sounds

1348
00:57:41,211 --> 00:57:42,754
a little James Bond-y
and stupid.

1349
00:57:42,754 --> 00:57:46,591
And he gave me
broad, general coordinates.

1350
00:57:46,591 --> 00:57:48,343
There you are.

1351
00:57:48,343 --> 00:57:51,388
There was a lot of evidence
kind of mounting

1352
00:57:51,388 --> 00:57:53,890
that this is actually being
hollowed out

1353
00:57:53,890 --> 00:57:56,267
so that you could fit in
a submarine.

1354
00:57:56,267 --> 00:57:57,894
These are huge piles of dirt.

1355
00:57:57,894 --> 00:57:59,854
And as boring as that sounds,
when you see

1356
00:57:59,854 --> 00:58:01,898
massive piles of dirt
in a military base,

1357
00:58:01,898 --> 00:58:04,150
you know that a lot
of construction is happening.

1358
00:58:04,150 --> 00:58:06,444
They put a little barge here.

1359
00:58:06,444 --> 00:58:08,655
They open up the sea cave.
They take the barge.

1360
00:58:08,655 --> 00:58:11,199
And they move it over
right here.

1361
00:58:11,199 --> 00:58:14,869
And the only time I've ever
seen it removed was here.

1362
00:58:14,869 --> 00:58:16,830
This image was taken

1363
00:58:16,830 --> 00:58:20,333
<i>by a Planet satellite
in August of 2020.</i>

1364
00:58:20,333 --> 00:58:23,253
<i>And this is the only image
I've ever seen</i>

1365
00:58:23,253 --> 00:58:27,465
where you're actually seeing
this Chinese nuclear submarine

1366
00:58:27,465 --> 00:58:29,801
entering that cave.

1367
00:58:29,801 --> 00:58:31,720
<i>I had been looking
for this for--</i>

1368
00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:34,848
<i>[laughs]
For 12 years.</i>

1369
00:58:39,811 --> 00:58:42,439
<i>And, safety, can you confirm
that red team</i>

1370
00:58:42,439 --> 00:58:46,151
<i>is in a safe location
for UHF testing?</i>

1371
00:58:46,151 --> 00:58:48,153
Copy that. Thank you.

1372
00:58:48,153 --> 00:58:49,779
<i>We took about a year.</i>

1373
00:58:49,779 --> 00:58:51,948
And we came back
with Rocket 3.

1374
00:58:51,948 --> 00:58:54,325
<i>We had a series
of test flights that failed.</i>

1375
00:58:54,325 --> 00:58:58,371
And they failed
in ever more spectacular ways.

1376
00:58:58,371 --> 00:58:59,873
<i>Ooh. Ooh.</i>

1377
00:59:01,332 --> 00:59:02,667
It's not good.
We hit the ground.

1378
00:59:02,667 --> 00:59:05,003
Like, we hit something.

1379
00:59:05,003 --> 00:59:08,465
Fuck.

1380
00:59:08,465 --> 00:59:10,550
This sucks.

1381
00:59:10,550 --> 00:59:12,344
<i>That, I don't think,
was good.</i>

1382
00:59:12,344 --> 00:59:15,513
<i>[indistinct chatter]</i>

1383
00:59:17,640 --> 00:59:19,809
<i>Dolphin, confirm igniter
system is ready for launch.</i>

1384
00:59:19,809 --> 00:59:21,436
<i>It's 2020.</i>

1385
00:59:21,436 --> 00:59:22,937
<i>It's Rocket 3.2.</i>

1386
00:59:22,937 --> 00:59:24,481
[sighs]

1387
00:59:24,481 --> 00:59:26,524
This thing has to work

1388
00:59:26,524 --> 00:59:30,945
<i>if Astra wants to consider
itself a real rocket company.</i>

1389
00:59:30,945 --> 00:59:33,198
<i>Everything was on the line.</i>

1390
00:59:33,198 --> 00:59:35,533
How's it looking, Lucas?

1391
00:59:35,533 --> 00:59:37,327
OK, tango, at this time,

1392
00:59:37,327 --> 00:59:39,537
I would like you
to enable the launch.

1393
00:59:39,537 --> 00:59:42,207
<i>[tense music]</i>

1394
00:59:42,207 --> 00:59:44,042
<i>Ten, nine,</i>

1395
00:59:44,042 --> 00:59:47,003
eight, seven, six,

1396
00:59:47,003 --> 00:59:50,215
five, four, three,

1397
00:59:50,215 --> 00:59:53,009
<i>two, one, zero.</i>

1398
00:59:53,009 --> 00:59:54,636
<i>Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Let it go.</i>

1399
00:59:54,636 --> 00:59:56,054
<i>Release.</i>

1400
00:59:56,054 --> 00:59:58,264
<i>We have cleared the tower.</i>

1401
01:00:00,350 --> 01:00:01,935
[laughs]

1402
01:00:01,935 --> 01:00:05,563
<i>Here we go. Here we go.
Here we go. Here we go.</i>

1403
01:00:05,563 --> 01:00:11,653
<i>♪ ♪</i>

1404
01:00:11,653 --> 01:00:13,446
- Stage.
- Stage set.

1405
01:00:13,446 --> 01:00:15,448
Upper-stage ignition enabled.

1406
01:00:15,448 --> 01:00:18,493
Yeah! Yes! Yes!
[cheers and applause]

1407
01:00:18,493 --> 01:00:21,538
[excited chatter]

1408
01:00:21,538 --> 01:00:23,373
- Yes!
- Fuck, yes, man.

1409
01:00:23,373 --> 01:00:25,250
- Fuck, yeah!
- Jesus Christ.

1410
01:00:25,250 --> 01:00:27,168
Holy shit.

1411
01:00:27,168 --> 01:00:28,336
Fuck, yeah.

1412
01:00:28,336 --> 01:00:29,713
Oh, man.

1413
01:00:29,713 --> 01:00:32,799
[laughter]

1414
01:00:35,176 --> 01:00:37,721
Thank you.

1415
01:00:40,765 --> 01:00:42,600
No way.
That's our rocket?

1416
01:00:42,600 --> 01:00:43,852
Yeah.

1417
01:00:43,852 --> 01:00:46,771
We're in space.
We're definitively in space.

1418
01:00:46,771 --> 01:00:48,523
[laughs]

1419
01:00:48,523 --> 01:00:49,607
Oh.

1420
01:00:49,607 --> 01:00:50,859
<i>That's incredible.</i>

1421
01:00:50,859 --> 01:00:52,610
We've got to figure out
next steps now

1422
01:00:52,610 --> 01:00:54,446
because we didn't expect
to pull this off

1423
01:00:54,446 --> 01:00:56,072
quite this quickly,
so we have to--

1424
01:00:56,072 --> 01:00:58,366
got to figure out
how to accelerate things now.

1425
01:00:58,366 --> 01:01:00,160
Oh, fuck, yes.

1426
01:01:03,288 --> 01:01:04,539
[cell phone rings]

1427
01:01:04,539 --> 01:01:05,999
<i>- Hey, baby.</i>
- Hey, baby.

1428
01:01:05,999 --> 01:01:08,251
We just are in orbit
temporarily.

1429
01:01:08,251 --> 01:01:11,046
We made it all the way.
[whistling and applause]

1430
01:01:11,046 --> 01:01:13,798
<i>Lots of videos, like the thing
with Earth in the background.</i>

1431
01:01:13,798 --> 01:01:15,175
I love you, sweetie.

1432
01:01:15,175 --> 01:01:17,260
This makes life
so much easier for us.

1433
01:01:17,260 --> 01:01:20,430
Our valuation just doubled.
[laughs]

1434
01:01:20,430 --> 01:01:22,807
OK, 22 is the new number.

1435
01:01:22,807 --> 01:01:24,559
Man, 3 years
of trying to do this,

1436
01:01:24,559 --> 01:01:27,645
22 tries with this.

1437
01:01:27,645 --> 01:01:28,688
[sighs]

1438
01:01:28,688 --> 01:01:30,482
all: Cheers.

1439
01:01:30,482 --> 01:01:32,650
I'm really glad
we replaced that battery.

1440
01:01:32,650 --> 01:01:34,527
[laughter]

1441
01:01:36,363 --> 01:01:38,656
<i>We have two pictures
of what looks like</i>

1442
01:01:38,656 --> 01:01:41,159
<i>we're in orbit,
and then silence, right?</i>

1443
01:01:41,159 --> 01:01:43,411
So, like, what do we do
to follow that?

1444
01:01:43,411 --> 01:01:46,414
Because the silence is
deafening right now.

1445
01:01:53,004 --> 01:01:56,675
We need to say,
"Total mission success,"

1446
01:01:56,675 --> 01:01:59,010
exclamation, exclamation.

1447
01:02:01,513 --> 01:02:03,515
Mission success.

1448
01:02:07,143 --> 01:02:09,020
Huge success.
- Huge success. Yeah.

1449
01:02:09,020 --> 01:02:12,023
Yeah, and that'll be vague.
I like that.

1450
01:02:12,023 --> 01:02:14,442
<i>[exciting music]</i>

1451
01:02:14,442 --> 01:02:18,405
[bell ringing]

1452
01:02:18,405 --> 01:02:20,949
<i>Astra, an aerospace company
sending satellites,</i>

1453
01:02:20,949 --> 01:02:24,160
<i>not people, into space is
debuting on the NASDAQ today,</i>

1454
01:02:24,160 --> 01:02:26,788
listing at a $2 billion
valuation.

1455
01:02:26,788 --> 01:02:28,373
You know,
there's a trillion-dollar

1456
01:02:28,373 --> 01:02:29,833
space economy
that's developing.

1457
01:02:29,833 --> 01:02:32,502
<i>And hundreds of companies
over the past few years</i>

1458
01:02:32,502 --> 01:02:34,045
<i>have been formed.</i>

1459
01:02:34,045 --> 01:02:36,715
So, without further ado,
I am thrilled to declare

1460
01:02:36,715 --> 01:02:38,883
that space is now open
for business.

1461
01:02:38,883 --> 01:02:42,012
[cheers and applause]

1462
01:02:44,305 --> 01:02:46,558
<i>This is a space renaissance
going on.</i>

1463
01:02:46,558 --> 01:02:49,185
<i>We got new rockets,
hundreds of new satellites</i>

1464
01:02:49,185 --> 01:02:50,478
<i>going into space,</i>

1465
01:02:50,478 --> 01:02:51,688
and a big, new economy.

1466
01:02:51,688 --> 01:02:53,189
It's like the birth
of the Internet

1467
01:02:53,189 --> 01:02:55,233
going on for space.

1468
01:02:55,233 --> 01:02:56,359
It's exciting times.

1469
01:02:56,359 --> 01:02:58,570
[bell ringing]

1470
01:02:58,570 --> 01:03:00,196
<i>The space industry
has transformed</i>

1471
01:03:00,196 --> 01:03:01,406
in the last decade.

1472
01:03:01,406 --> 01:03:03,575
And what drove that
was a massive influx

1473
01:03:03,575 --> 01:03:05,910
of venture capital.

1474
01:03:05,910 --> 01:03:07,412
<i>Space is the place.</i>

1475
01:03:07,412 --> 01:03:08,913
Space is hot.

1476
01:03:08,913 --> 01:03:11,416
<i>Tons of money has
flooded into this,</i>

1477
01:03:11,416 --> 01:03:12,959
<i>hundreds of billions
of dollars</i>

1478
01:03:12,959 --> 01:03:14,794
into all these
rocket companies,

1479
01:03:14,794 --> 01:03:17,047
hundreds of billions
into these satellite companies.

1480
01:03:17,047 --> 01:03:20,425
<i>When there is this kind
of investment into space,</i>

1481
01:03:20,425 --> 01:03:23,261
we do end up with innovations
that help people.

1482
01:03:23,261 --> 01:03:25,889
<i>Is the venture-capital
community</i>

1483
01:03:25,889 --> 01:03:28,475
in this for altruistic reasons?

1484
01:03:28,475 --> 01:03:30,226
That would not be my view.

1485
01:03:30,226 --> 01:03:33,063
The venture-capital community
is in this to make money.

1486
01:03:33,063 --> 01:03:35,607
<i>Doves are flying
in outer space.</i>

1487
01:03:35,607 --> 01:03:37,734
<i>And if you're an investor,
the pictures they send back</i>

1488
01:03:37,734 --> 01:03:40,945
<i>could bring you a really
serious competitive advantage</i>

1489
01:03:40,945 --> 01:03:42,781
<i>and a profit.</i>

1490
01:03:42,781 --> 01:03:45,116
<i>When you have this daily
imagery of the Earth,</i>

1491
01:03:45,116 --> 01:03:46,951
<i>it's this huge window</i>

1492
01:03:46,951 --> 01:03:49,913
<i>into the economic activity
of our planet.</i>

1493
01:03:49,913 --> 01:03:51,122
<i>From West Texas oil fields</i>

1494
01:03:51,122 --> 01:03:53,583
<i>to Chinese power plants
in Xinjiang</i>

1495
01:03:53,583 --> 01:03:55,210
<i>and Argentine lithium mines.</i>

1496
01:03:55,210 --> 01:03:59,297
One of the biggest things
that I did in the tech sector

1497
01:03:59,297 --> 01:04:01,883
was look at floating-lid
oil tanks.

1498
01:04:01,883 --> 01:04:04,469
<i>They're huge oil-storage tanks</i>

1499
01:04:04,469 --> 01:04:08,056
that as you remove oil
from it, the lid depresses.

1500
01:04:08,056 --> 01:04:11,518
<i>You can take an image
over that every single day.</i>

1501
01:04:11,518 --> 01:04:14,521
You can measure the shadow
of the interior of that.

1502
01:04:14,521 --> 01:04:18,441
And you can actually calculate
the volume of oil.

1503
01:04:18,441 --> 01:04:20,068
<i>They do a report
every Wednesday,</i>

1504
01:04:20,068 --> 01:04:21,194
how much oil they have.

1505
01:04:21,194 --> 01:04:23,196
But if you get the numbers
on Monday,

1506
01:04:23,196 --> 01:04:25,615
then you have
a financial advantage.

1507
01:04:25,615 --> 01:04:27,784
Hedge funds is one
of the most interesting areas

1508
01:04:27,784 --> 01:04:30,620
in finance because we actually
know the soy yield

1509
01:04:30,620 --> 01:04:32,372
of all the world's soy fields
before anyone else,

1510
01:04:32,372 --> 01:04:34,082
the crop yields,

1511
01:04:34,082 --> 01:04:36,710
the mining output from all
the world's copper mines,

1512
01:04:36,710 --> 01:04:38,336
and so on.

1513
01:04:38,336 --> 01:04:42,507
<i>Now you have these very
successful satellite companies</i>

1514
01:04:42,507 --> 01:04:47,095
that do have a lot of power
over the information

1515
01:04:47,095 --> 01:04:49,848
that describes our lives.

1516
01:04:49,848 --> 01:04:53,226
<i>[soft dramatic music]</i>

1517
01:04:56,771 --> 01:04:59,024
<i>More than half
the satellites in space</i>

1518
01:04:59,024 --> 01:05:02,193
are owned and controlled
by one man.

1519
01:05:02,193 --> 01:05:04,696
Elon Musk
and his company Starlink

1520
01:05:04,696 --> 01:05:06,531
operate more than 4,500
of them.

1521
01:05:06,531 --> 01:05:08,867
<i>So, if I type in Starlink,</i>

1522
01:05:08,867 --> 01:05:11,703
<i>these are all the satellites
that are operated by SpaceX.</i>

1523
01:05:11,703 --> 01:05:15,081
<i>They will launch them
20 at a time, 60 at a time.</i>

1524
01:05:15,081 --> 01:05:18,960
That is a new thing
in the space industry

1525
01:05:18,960 --> 01:05:21,296
over the last few years.

1526
01:05:21,296 --> 01:05:24,341
<i>SpaceX has moved so fast</i>

1527
01:05:24,341 --> 01:05:26,926
that they have become
clearly dominant.

1528
01:05:26,926 --> 01:05:30,055
<i>They are the world's
largest satellite maker</i>

1529
01:05:30,055 --> 01:05:32,724
<i>by many, many times.</i>

1530
01:05:34,851 --> 01:05:39,147
<i>There are challenges
with the satellite era</i>

1531
01:05:39,147 --> 01:05:41,733
<i>in terms of
the environmental impact</i>

1532
01:05:41,733 --> 01:05:45,612
of humans industrializing
outer space.

1533
01:05:46,988 --> 01:05:48,656
<i>In 2009,</i>

1534
01:05:48,656 --> 01:05:50,909
an Iridium Communications
satellite

1535
01:05:50,909 --> 01:05:53,244
was happily orbiting
over the Arctic

1536
01:05:53,244 --> 01:05:56,873
<i>when a dead Russian
communications satellite</i>

1537
01:05:56,873 --> 01:05:59,834
<i>from the '90s
headed the same way.</i>

1538
01:05:59,834 --> 01:06:02,379
And they smashed
into each other.

1539
01:06:02,379 --> 01:06:04,589
<i>Thousands of debris objects,</i>

1540
01:06:04,589 --> 01:06:07,926
<i>many of which are
still in orbit today.</i>

1541
01:06:07,926 --> 01:06:12,472
This was the most serious
orbital collision to date.

1542
01:06:14,432 --> 01:06:16,851
<i>We track all the satellites,
all the space debris.</i>

1543
01:06:16,851 --> 01:06:19,813
It's sort of like
air traffic control for space.

1544
01:06:19,813 --> 01:06:21,606
So you see on this globe

1545
01:06:21,606 --> 01:06:24,609
<i>everything that we've been
tracking over the last day,</i>

1546
01:06:24,609 --> 01:06:27,404
<i>so over 20,000 objects,</i>

1547
01:06:27,404 --> 01:06:30,198
<i>satellites, pieces of debris,</i>

1548
01:06:30,198 --> 01:06:32,784
stuff down to, like,
a centimeter in size,

1549
01:06:32,784 --> 01:06:34,911
you know, about the size
of this screw.

1550
01:06:34,911 --> 01:06:37,706
<i>And we basically keep tabs
on all of that</i>

1551
01:06:37,706 --> 01:06:41,626
<i>and then generate alerts
when important changes happen.</i>

1552
01:06:41,626 --> 01:06:44,295
<i>There are always close calls
with space debris.</i>

1553
01:06:44,295 --> 01:06:47,632
I was a NASA astronaut
from 1995 until 2007.

1554
01:06:47,632 --> 01:06:50,093
[classical piano music playing]

1555
01:06:50,093 --> 01:06:51,553
<i>I remember an instance</i>

1556
01:06:51,553 --> 01:06:53,763
where we were told
by mission control

1557
01:06:53,763 --> 01:06:56,057
that we were gonna have
a close approach.

1558
01:06:56,057 --> 01:06:59,227
<i>Never saw it, which goes
to show you how hard it is</i>

1559
01:06:59,227 --> 01:07:01,479
<i>to see something
going 20 times faster</i>

1560
01:07:01,479 --> 01:07:02,939
<i>than a speeding bullet.</i>

1561
01:07:04,816 --> 01:07:08,653
We really do have to start
cleaning up

1562
01:07:08,653 --> 01:07:10,447
low Earth orbit.

1563
01:07:10,447 --> 01:07:14,117
In the decades to come,
if we do nothing,

1564
01:07:14,117 --> 01:07:17,037
we will start to see
more and more collisions

1565
01:07:17,037 --> 01:07:19,622
<i>and more and more
satellites destroyed</i>

1566
01:07:19,622 --> 01:07:22,250
<i>due to these collisions.</i>

1567
01:07:22,250 --> 01:07:26,046
It's the gateway if you want
to go anywhere else in space.

1568
01:07:26,046 --> 01:07:29,883
<i>If you want to go to the moon,
if you want to go to Mars,</i>

1569
01:07:29,883 --> 01:07:31,885
<i>if you want to put up
a telescope</i>

1570
01:07:31,885 --> 01:07:34,971
<i>like the James Webb
to peer at other galaxies,</i>

1571
01:07:34,971 --> 01:07:38,433
you've got to go in
and through low Earth orbit.

1572
01:07:38,433 --> 01:07:40,477
So, if it becomes a mess,

1573
01:07:40,477 --> 01:07:44,522
then we've actually
limited ourselves to Earth.

1574
01:07:44,522 --> 01:07:48,610
<i>[quirky music]</i>

1575
01:07:48,610 --> 01:07:50,028
[bird screeches]

1576
01:07:50,028 --> 01:07:52,697
<i>So, like,
in typical Astra fashion,</i>

1577
01:07:52,697 --> 01:07:54,699
<i>you've just reached
the edge of orbit.</i>

1578
01:07:54,699 --> 01:07:57,285
<i>You hope the next one
is a total success.</i>

1579
01:07:57,285 --> 01:08:00,538
Instead of that,
a few months later, in 2021,

1580
01:08:00,538 --> 01:08:03,500
Astra has their infamous
sideways rocket.

1581
01:08:06,711 --> 01:08:10,715
<i>The rocket lost one of five
engines almost immediately.</i>

1582
01:08:10,715 --> 01:08:13,802
<i>It pretty much went sideways.</i>

1583
01:08:13,802 --> 01:08:15,970
It just goes out the fence
and then up.

1584
01:08:15,970 --> 01:08:21,309
♪ ♪

1585
01:08:21,309 --> 01:08:23,061
<i>We've got a stock
that's really losing</i>

1586
01:08:23,061 --> 01:08:25,063
a lot of ground this morning,

1587
01:08:25,063 --> 01:08:27,440
and that is Astra Space.

1588
01:08:27,440 --> 01:08:29,192
<i>It was their first
commercial mission.</i>

1589
01:08:29,192 --> 01:08:30,944
<i>And it was not a success.
- No, it's not.</i>

1590
01:08:30,944 --> 01:08:33,488
<i>So that stock's down.
Look at that. Wow.</i>

1591
01:08:33,488 --> 01:08:34,781
<i>17%.</i>

1592
01:08:34,781 --> 01:08:36,074
<i>That thing's just
going sideways.</i>

1593
01:08:36,074 --> 01:08:37,075
<i>I know.</i>

1594
01:08:37,075 --> 01:08:39,077
Again,
a couple steps forward,

1595
01:08:39,077 --> 01:08:40,161
several steps backwards.

1596
01:08:40,161 --> 01:08:42,080
<i>Five, four...</i>

1597
01:08:45,208 --> 01:08:48,086
<i>[indistinct chatter]</i>

1598
01:08:50,922 --> 01:08:54,551
[applause]

1599
01:08:54,551 --> 01:08:59,389
In 2021, everything finally
happens in Astra's favor.

1600
01:08:59,389 --> 01:09:03,184
<i>And Astra's LV0007 has
successfully reached orbit.</i>

1601
01:09:03,184 --> 01:09:05,437
<i>There is a new orbital rocket.</i>

1602
01:09:05,437 --> 01:09:07,105
Take a look
at rocket upstart Astra Space.

1603
01:09:07,105 --> 01:09:08,440
Shares surging yesterday,

1604
01:09:08,440 --> 01:09:10,275
<i>as much as 30% at one point,</i>

1605
01:09:10,275 --> 01:09:12,610
<i>after its small rocket
successfully reached orbit</i>

1606
01:09:12,610 --> 01:09:14,946
<i>on Saturday.</i>

1607
01:09:14,946 --> 01:09:17,240
<i>The milestone makes Astra</i>

1608
01:09:17,240 --> 01:09:20,744
<i>the fastest launch company
ever to reach orbit.</i>

1609
01:09:20,744 --> 01:09:23,204
[cheers and applause]

1610
01:09:23,204 --> 01:09:26,416
Seeing failure after failure
lead to success,

1611
01:09:26,416 --> 01:09:28,543
everyone is just incredibly...

1612
01:09:28,543 --> 01:09:30,170
[champagne cork pops]
Passionate about--

1613
01:09:30,170 --> 01:09:31,629
- [laughs]
- Corks are flying.

1614
01:09:31,629 --> 01:09:34,758
<i>Astra becoming
just the fourth U.S. company</i>

1615
01:09:34,758 --> 01:09:36,176
<i>to privately fund and develop</i>

1616
01:09:36,176 --> 01:09:37,844
<i>a rocket
that has reached orbit.</i>

1617
01:09:37,844 --> 01:09:39,888
<i>They're joining
a small group of companies--</i>

1618
01:09:39,888 --> 01:09:42,640
<i>SpaceX, Virgin Orbit,
and Rocket Lab.</i>

1619
01:09:46,269 --> 01:09:47,896
<i>What happens
in the space business</i>

1620
01:09:47,896 --> 01:09:49,814
<i>once you accomplish this is,</i>

1621
01:09:49,814 --> 01:09:53,610
<i>governments start
to award you contracts.</i>

1622
01:09:53,610 --> 01:09:56,571
<i>NASA had this mission
called TROPICS.</i>

1623
01:09:56,571 --> 01:10:00,075
<i>They were gonna borrow from
some of Planet Labs' ideas</i>

1624
01:10:00,075 --> 01:10:03,661
and put up a lot of satellites
to measure the weather.

1625
01:10:03,661 --> 01:10:07,499
<i>At NASA, we try to bring in
small launch companies</i>

1626
01:10:07,499 --> 01:10:10,585
just so we can help create
that competitive environment.

1627
01:10:10,585 --> 01:10:15,006
It is in our best interest
that we get the best price.

1628
01:10:15,006 --> 01:10:17,342
<i>This is the chance
where you show it wasn't luck.</i>

1629
01:10:17,342 --> 01:10:19,844
<i>It was like, we know
exactly what we're doing.</i>

1630
01:10:19,844 --> 01:10:23,056
We can do this
again and again.

1631
01:10:23,056 --> 01:10:24,474
<i>Good morning, everyone.</i>

1632
01:10:24,474 --> 01:10:26,726
<i>And welcome to today's
live launch coverage.</i>

1633
01:10:26,726 --> 01:10:30,480
LV0010 marks
Astra's mission with NASA.

1634
01:10:30,480 --> 01:10:32,649
<i>And it is the first
of three launches</i>

1635
01:10:32,649 --> 01:10:36,653
<i>to deliver the NASA TROPICS
satellites to low Earth orbit.</i>

1636
01:10:36,653 --> 01:10:38,196
Five, four...

1637
01:10:50,709 --> 01:10:52,210
<i>The teams at Alameda</i>

1638
01:10:52,210 --> 01:10:54,295
<i>watching on
as the flight progresses.</i>

1639
01:10:54,295 --> 01:10:56,047
<i>Again, the flight, going well
so far.</i>

1640
01:10:56,047 --> 01:10:59,342
<i>Can see it taking off
from below.</i>

1641
01:10:59,342 --> 01:11:01,803
<i>And there is stage separation.</i>

1642
01:11:04,055 --> 01:11:06,349
<i>Seven minutes in the flight,
just a little over</i>

1643
01:11:06,349 --> 01:11:09,060
<i>a minute left in the planned
upper-stage burn.</i>

1644
01:11:09,060 --> 01:11:12,230
<i>[tense music]</i>

1645
01:11:12,230 --> 01:11:19,320
<i>♪ ♪</i>

1646
01:11:20,405 --> 01:11:23,408
<i>We have a premature
second-engine cutoff.</i>

1647
01:11:25,285 --> 01:11:27,704
We had a nominal
first-stage flight.

1648
01:11:27,704 --> 01:11:30,707
However, the upper-stage engine
did shut down early.

1649
01:11:30,707 --> 01:11:33,251
And we did not deliver
our payloads to orbit.

1650
01:11:33,251 --> 01:11:35,128
We will end
the broadcast here.

1651
01:11:35,128 --> 01:11:37,297
And thank you
for sticking with us today.

1652
01:11:39,257 --> 01:11:43,053
<i>An Astra rocket launch from
the Cape on Sunday failed.</i>

1653
01:11:43,053 --> 01:11:45,638
The startup was unable
to put satellites into orbit.

1654
01:11:45,638 --> 01:11:48,558
<i>It seems like it was
an engine-related issue</i>

1655
01:11:48,558 --> 01:11:52,062
very, very late
in the second-stage burn.

1656
01:11:52,062 --> 01:11:53,605
They were almost to orbit.

1657
01:11:53,605 --> 01:11:55,774
In fact, they were probably
maybe 20 seconds away

1658
01:11:55,774 --> 01:11:57,734
from actually attaining orbit.

1659
01:11:57,734 --> 01:12:03,948
<i>♪ ♪</i>

1660
01:12:05,617 --> 01:12:08,787
<i>[dramatic music]</i>

1661
01:12:08,787 --> 01:12:10,288
<i>♪ ♪</i>

1662
01:12:10,288 --> 01:12:12,290
<i>This image taken
from a satellite</i>

1663
01:12:12,290 --> 01:12:15,293
<i>about 280 miles over Earth.</i>

1664
01:12:15,293 --> 01:12:17,796
<i>When Russia invaded Ukraine,</i>

1665
01:12:17,796 --> 01:12:20,632
it was an all-hands-on-deck
for our company.

1666
01:12:20,632 --> 01:12:23,468
<i>Planet's technology has been
essential in tracking</i>

1667
01:12:23,468 --> 01:12:25,970
<i>Russia's ongoing war
in Ukraine.</i>

1668
01:12:25,970 --> 01:12:27,472
<i>You had Russia telling us</i>

1669
01:12:27,472 --> 01:12:29,307
they were not
gonna invade Ukraine.

1670
01:12:29,307 --> 01:12:33,269
<i>In our imagery, you could
see the troop buildup.</i>

1671
01:12:33,269 --> 01:12:36,773
<i>This is now the first war
that everyone gets to see</i>

1672
01:12:36,773 --> 01:12:38,566
what's happening in real time.

1673
01:12:38,566 --> 01:12:40,777
The Russian army
does not strike

1674
01:12:40,777 --> 01:12:42,821
at any civilian targets.

1675
01:12:42,821 --> 01:12:44,823
Putin said, "We don't
bomb civilian targets."

1676
01:12:44,823 --> 01:12:46,449
We showed the next day
on the front page

1677
01:12:46,449 --> 01:12:47,992
of "The New York Times"

1678
01:12:47,992 --> 01:12:50,453
<i>the five hospitals and schools
that they had bombed.</i>

1679
01:12:50,453 --> 01:12:52,497
<i>So how do you know
these are new graves?</i>

1680
01:12:52,497 --> 01:12:54,082
<i>This is fresh brown dirt.</i>

1681
01:12:54,082 --> 01:12:56,418
And they've been using
bulldozers

1682
01:12:56,418 --> 01:12:59,587
<i>to slowly dig out
these trenches.</i>

1683
01:12:59,587 --> 01:13:02,298
The broad impact, I think,
is that it's helping

1684
01:13:02,298 --> 01:13:04,634
to lift the fog of war.

1685
01:13:04,634 --> 01:13:06,594
<i>Planet's clients
include the U.S. government</i>

1686
01:13:06,594 --> 01:13:08,346
<i>and many other governments.</i>

1687
01:13:08,346 --> 01:13:11,766
<i>You know, their key
objective was a utopian one.</i>

1688
01:13:11,766 --> 01:13:14,352
In fact, they called
their satellites Doves,

1689
01:13:14,352 --> 01:13:16,354
that they were
sort of peace sats.

1690
01:13:16,354 --> 01:13:20,150
Now, what's interesting
to me is that

1691
01:13:20,150 --> 01:13:22,944
a peace sat can do
a lot of things.

1692
01:13:24,696 --> 01:13:27,240
<i>With any
new technology, right,</i>

1693
01:13:27,240 --> 01:13:30,243
<i>it comes with the great hope
for the future.</i>

1694
01:13:30,243 --> 01:13:32,704
And then reality sets in,

1695
01:13:32,704 --> 01:13:35,749
and you realize that, as with
anything that humans do,

1696
01:13:35,749 --> 01:13:37,542
there are pluses and minuses.

1697
01:13:39,044 --> 01:13:41,046
<i>The founders of Planet
have talked</i>

1698
01:13:41,046 --> 01:13:44,049
<i>about how their goal was</i>

1699
01:13:44,049 --> 01:13:49,012
to use this imaging technology
for the benefit of the world,

1700
01:13:49,012 --> 01:13:52,390
particularly choosing
the resolution of the camera

1701
01:13:52,390 --> 01:13:55,769
<i>so that it was good enough
to count every tree</i>

1702
01:13:55,769 --> 01:13:58,063
<i>and not high enough</i>

1703
01:13:58,063 --> 01:14:01,024
<i>to raise privacy concerns.</i>

1704
01:14:01,024 --> 01:14:02,233
On the other hand,

1705
01:14:02,233 --> 01:14:05,528
a lot of their market now
is the military.

1706
01:14:07,155 --> 01:14:09,991
<i>This gives any country
the same power</i>

1707
01:14:09,991 --> 01:14:13,578
<i>that a superpower like Russia
or China had before.</i>

1708
01:14:13,578 --> 01:14:14,871
Now they can see

1709
01:14:14,871 --> 01:14:16,706
everything that's happening
in their country.

1710
01:14:16,706 --> 01:14:18,249
And, like, maybe
they use that for good.

1711
01:14:18,249 --> 01:14:19,918
And maybe
they use that for bad.

1712
01:14:19,918 --> 01:14:22,087
<i>Like, if you want to know</i>

1713
01:14:22,087 --> 01:14:24,923
<i>where some refugees
are hiding out,</i>

1714
01:14:24,923 --> 01:14:28,051
you can watch that
all the time.

1715
01:14:28,051 --> 01:14:31,429
<i>The technology to get
higher-resolution imagery</i>

1716
01:14:31,429 --> 01:14:32,931
is emerging.

1717
01:14:32,931 --> 01:14:35,600
And the government's
regulation is receding.

1718
01:14:35,600 --> 01:14:38,937
<i>Privacy is very much an issue.</i>

1719
01:14:38,937 --> 01:14:41,314
Right now
if a guy wanted to look

1720
01:14:41,314 --> 01:14:43,858
at his ex-wife's driveway

1721
01:14:43,858 --> 01:14:46,152
<i>to see if her car's there
or not,</i>

1722
01:14:46,152 --> 01:14:50,198
<i>the guy could conceivably take
two satellite images a day.</i>

1723
01:14:50,198 --> 01:14:53,451
We're not safe from
satellite-imagery analysis.

1724
01:14:59,165 --> 01:15:00,458
<i>Hello, and welcome</i>

1725
01:15:00,458 --> 01:15:02,460
<i>to Rocket Lab's
mission control center</i>

1726
01:15:02,460 --> 01:15:05,755
<i>in Auckland, New Zealand,
for Rocket Like a Hurricane,</i>

1727
01:15:05,755 --> 01:15:08,049
<i>a dedicated mission
for NASA to launch</i>

1728
01:15:08,049 --> 01:15:09,801
<i>the TROPICS constellation</i>

1729
01:15:09,801 --> 01:15:11,928
<i>of hurricane-monitoring
satellites.</i>

1730
01:15:16,975 --> 01:15:20,478
<i>The original contract was
awarded to another provider.</i>

1731
01:15:20,478 --> 01:15:22,147
<i>They put it in the ocean.</i>

1732
01:15:22,147 --> 01:15:25,650
And then they awarded it to us,

1733
01:15:25,650 --> 01:15:28,319
and we successfully put it
into orbit.

1734
01:15:28,319 --> 01:15:29,988
End of story.

1735
01:15:31,865 --> 01:15:34,743
<i>NASA awards
all the future contracts</i>

1736
01:15:34,743 --> 01:15:37,412
<i>to Rocket Lab
for the TROPICS mission.</i>

1737
01:15:37,412 --> 01:15:42,083
And so, like,
clear blow to Chris.

1738
01:15:43,626 --> 01:15:45,378
[car horn honks]

1739
01:15:45,378 --> 01:15:49,424
<i>We've been trading right now
under a dollar a share</i>

1740
01:15:49,424 --> 01:15:51,885
<i>for the majority of this year.</i>

1741
01:15:51,885 --> 01:15:55,221
And NASDAQ will not allow us
to remain listed

1742
01:15:55,221 --> 01:15:58,975
<i>if we do not trade
for more than a dollar a share</i>

1743
01:15:58,975 --> 01:16:00,977
<i>for more
than ten trading days.</i>

1744
01:16:00,977 --> 01:16:04,356
So we're kind of
in this laser-focus mode,

1745
01:16:04,356 --> 01:16:06,816
where let's make
every penny count.

1746
01:16:06,816 --> 01:16:10,987
Let's make every person count.
Let's make every hour count.

1747
01:16:10,987 --> 01:16:13,823
<i>On paper,
Astra still might have</i>

1748
01:16:13,823 --> 01:16:16,659
<i>enough money
to build a larger rocket</i>

1749
01:16:16,659 --> 01:16:18,995
and get to launch it.

1750
01:16:18,995 --> 01:16:22,332
They're in a tricky spot
financially, mainly,

1751
01:16:22,332 --> 01:16:24,376
<i>but also some
technical hurdles.</i>

1752
01:16:24,376 --> 01:16:26,378
But without money,
you can't continue, right?

1753
01:16:26,378 --> 01:16:28,588
This is about two years
in the making.

1754
01:16:28,588 --> 01:16:31,716
A lot of people have lost
a lot of trust in Astra,

1755
01:16:31,716 --> 01:16:34,427
generally, the market people
and their confidence

1756
01:16:34,427 --> 01:16:36,471
<i>in our ability to go deliver,</i>

1757
01:16:36,471 --> 01:16:38,139
whether or not they think
we can do that.

1758
01:16:38,139 --> 01:16:39,391
<i>The stakes are pretty high.</i>

1759
01:16:39,391 --> 01:16:41,101
We need to be successful
out the gate.

1760
01:16:41,101 --> 01:16:43,561
We can't afford to have
another mishap mission.

1761
01:16:43,561 --> 01:16:45,730
<i>So reliability needs to be up.</i>

1762
01:16:45,730 --> 01:16:47,482
<i>Qualification needs to be up.</i>

1763
01:16:47,482 --> 01:16:50,694
It's the old story
of just try, try again.

1764
01:16:50,694 --> 01:16:53,988
And sometimes
the company goes down.

1765
01:16:53,988 --> 01:16:55,782
<i>In the case of Chris Kemp,</i>

1766
01:16:55,782 --> 01:16:58,618
<i>he's had a few
that have gone down.</i>

1767
01:16:58,618 --> 01:17:00,370
But he keeps trying.

1768
01:17:00,370 --> 01:17:02,372
And now I'd like
to invite Chris Kemp

1769
01:17:02,372 --> 01:17:04,624
back onstage
for one more thing.

1770
01:17:04,624 --> 01:17:07,252
Cool. Thanks, Margot.

1771
01:17:07,252 --> 01:17:09,337
Thanks, Margot.

1772
01:17:09,337 --> 01:17:13,049
And I need my mic on
a little bit.

1773
01:17:13,049 --> 01:17:14,884
I'm gonna just do
the walk-on-stage thing

1774
01:17:14,884 --> 01:17:16,511
one more time.

1775
01:17:16,511 --> 01:17:18,596
<i>Tomorrow morning we have
several hundred people</i>

1776
01:17:18,596 --> 01:17:20,432
<i>from across
the space industry--</i>

1777
01:17:20,432 --> 01:17:22,434
<i>shareholders of Astra,
customers of Astra,</i>

1778
01:17:22,434 --> 01:17:24,728
<i>press, media, analysts.</i>

1779
01:17:24,728 --> 01:17:27,605
So it was a difficult year
for Astra.

1780
01:17:27,605 --> 01:17:29,858
And there's no way
to sugarcoat that.

1781
01:17:29,858 --> 01:17:32,277
<i>Chris is
an incredible entrepreneur.</i>

1782
01:17:32,277 --> 01:17:36,072
He has pulled rabbits
out of hats on many occasions.

1783
01:17:36,072 --> 01:17:38,616
<i>I really can't tell you
which way it's gonna go.</i>

1784
01:17:38,616 --> 01:17:41,453
But it's not like
there's a trivial probability

1785
01:17:41,453 --> 01:17:43,788
of it blowing up, so to speak.

1786
01:17:43,788 --> 01:17:46,958
<i>In the spirit
of announcing new products,</i>

1787
01:17:46,958 --> 01:17:48,918
I wanted to,
on behalf of everyone

1788
01:17:48,918 --> 01:17:52,797
here at Astra,
announce Rocket 4.

1789
01:17:52,797 --> 01:17:55,800
<i>[upbeat music]</i>

1790
01:17:55,800 --> 01:17:58,928
[cheers and applause]

1791
01:18:02,349 --> 01:18:05,560
<i>We had to put everything
into this new rocket.</i>

1792
01:18:05,560 --> 01:18:07,771
So I think that there are
two scenarios here.

1793
01:18:07,771 --> 01:18:09,689
We either succeed,

1794
01:18:09,689 --> 01:18:11,399
or we're done.

1795
01:18:11,399 --> 01:18:15,028
<i>[tense music]</i>

1796
01:18:15,028 --> 01:18:18,740
<i>A bunch of space companies
are gonna fail.</i>

1797
01:18:18,740 --> 01:18:21,034
That's the nature
of venture-funded companies.

1798
01:18:21,034 --> 01:18:23,495
Does that mean
those companies just go away?

1799
01:18:23,495 --> 01:18:25,121
The capabilities go away?

1800
01:18:25,121 --> 01:18:27,540
The technology goes away?
The people go--No.

1801
01:18:29,042 --> 01:18:31,753
<i>Virgin Orbit
went bankrupt recently.</i>

1802
01:18:31,753 --> 01:18:34,255
And its competitors
bought its facilities,

1803
01:18:34,255 --> 01:18:37,592
took over its leases,
hired its experts.

1804
01:18:37,592 --> 01:18:39,844
[chuckles]
They did go bankrupt.

1805
01:18:39,844 --> 01:18:42,305
And, you know,
we bought their assets.

1806
01:18:42,305 --> 01:18:46,267
<i>And their assets live on
now building Neutron.</i>

1807
01:18:46,267 --> 01:18:49,396
<i>[exciting music]</i>

1808
01:18:49,396 --> 01:18:51,981
It is an absolute beast.

1809
01:18:51,981 --> 01:18:53,566
It stands 40 meters tall.

1810
01:18:53,566 --> 01:18:55,860
It has a 7-meter diameter
at the base

1811
01:18:55,860 --> 01:18:58,029
and a 5-meter class fairing.

1812
01:19:00,532 --> 01:19:03,660
<i>So Neutron is
basically our answer</i>

1813
01:19:03,660 --> 01:19:07,455
to a SpaceX
Falcon 9-class rocket.

1814
01:19:07,455 --> 01:19:09,708
<i>It's fairly clear
that SpaceX are</i>

1815
01:19:09,708 --> 01:19:11,793
<i>absolutely the dominant player.</i>

1816
01:19:11,793 --> 01:19:13,878
They're almost a monopoly,
if you will.

1817
01:19:13,878 --> 01:19:16,047
<i>It's good to have
some competition.</i>

1818
01:19:17,632 --> 01:19:19,968
<i>We think we've got
a reusable vehicle</i>

1819
01:19:19,968 --> 01:19:22,178
<i>that will be
really, really competitive.</i>

1820
01:19:22,178 --> 01:19:24,639
<i>We'll build it
and bring it to market.</i>

1821
01:19:24,639 --> 01:19:26,725
And, you know, we'll see--

1822
01:19:26,725 --> 01:19:28,893
we'll see who wins.

1823
01:19:30,645 --> 01:19:32,814
<i>Rocket Lab is taking
all their money.</i>

1824
01:19:32,814 --> 01:19:35,316
And they're putting it
into a giant vehicle

1825
01:19:35,316 --> 01:19:37,569
that will compete
directly with Falcon 9.

1826
01:19:37,569 --> 01:19:41,698
So they are moving away
from a small vehicle

1827
01:19:41,698 --> 01:19:45,326
mostly because we're gonna,
at some point, eat their lunch.

1828
01:19:45,326 --> 01:19:46,995
Ah, fuck.

1829
01:19:46,995 --> 01:19:51,166
I mean, probably a call
with him is best.

1830
01:19:51,166 --> 01:19:52,542
<i>Quarter is burning away.</i>

1831
01:19:52,542 --> 01:19:54,878
<i>We're burning time.
We're burning money.</i>

1832
01:19:54,878 --> 01:19:57,589
And I have a $1,400
water-jet garnet PO.

1833
01:19:57,589 --> 01:19:59,215
If we can push
that payment through,

1834
01:19:59,215 --> 01:20:01,176
that'll keep
the water-jet running.

1835
01:20:01,176 --> 01:20:02,927
<i>Something's got to give.</i>

1836
01:20:02,927 --> 01:20:04,387
<i>And now is the time
to break it and go and fix it.</i>

1837
01:20:04,387 --> 01:20:05,764
<i>Or I will simply
just take it over</i>

1838
01:20:05,764 --> 01:20:07,182
<i>and fucking run it myself.</i>

1839
01:20:07,182 --> 01:20:08,725
<i>Astra's admitted out loud</i>

1840
01:20:08,725 --> 01:20:11,770
<i>they're not only pushing
Rocket 4 back,</i>

1841
01:20:11,770 --> 01:20:16,232
but, also, they might not
even get to launch the rocket

1842
01:20:16,232 --> 01:20:18,193
because they really don't have
enough money

1843
01:20:18,193 --> 01:20:19,652
to do it at the moment.

1844
01:20:19,652 --> 01:20:21,363
<i>These scenarios
have to be matched</i>

1845
01:20:21,363 --> 01:20:23,740
to what is desired
in terms of outcome--

1846
01:20:23,740 --> 01:20:24,866
near-term and long-term.

1847
01:20:24,866 --> 01:20:26,117
In terms of the schedule.

1848
01:20:26,117 --> 01:20:27,786
In terms of a desired
launch date, yeah.

1849
01:20:27,786 --> 01:20:30,455
So we had a board meeting.

1850
01:20:30,455 --> 01:20:32,707
What the board's looking at is,
they're looking at that plan.

1851
01:20:32,707 --> 01:20:34,793
And they're saying,
if you want a year of runway,

1852
01:20:34,793 --> 01:20:36,378
you have to cut more.

1853
01:20:36,378 --> 01:20:38,672
And that'll cause
the market to respond

1854
01:20:38,672 --> 01:20:40,674
very favorably
to the transaction.

1855
01:20:40,674 --> 01:20:43,385
But the dichotomy is,
in order to achieve that,

1856
01:20:43,385 --> 01:20:45,053
we have to cut deeper.

1857
01:20:45,053 --> 01:20:49,099
So, to save ourselves,
we have to cut ourselves.

1858
01:20:49,099 --> 01:20:53,228
If we can lead the team
through the ultimate sacrifice

1859
01:20:53,228 --> 01:20:55,855
of everyone being let go...

1860
01:20:55,855 --> 01:20:58,483
but then potentially getting

1861
01:20:58,483 --> 01:21:00,443
all these contracts
and getting the financing,

1862
01:21:00,443 --> 01:21:01,861
we might not have to let--

1863
01:21:01,861 --> 01:21:04,489
Well, we probably will still
let some people go.

1864
01:21:04,489 --> 01:21:07,534
But we might not have to let
anywhere near as many go.

1865
01:21:07,534 --> 01:21:09,077
That's the challenge.

1866
01:21:12,372 --> 01:21:14,791
[chuckles]

1867
01:21:14,791 --> 01:21:16,126
You got to do something, right?

1868
01:21:16,126 --> 01:21:19,337
I mean, you can't--
you know, clock is ticking.

1869
01:21:19,337 --> 01:21:22,132
Just know, when we succeed,
it's gonna make--

1870
01:21:22,132 --> 01:21:24,467
it's gonna be great to watch.

1871
01:21:24,467 --> 01:21:27,804
And we are gonna succeed.
Failure is not an option.

1872
01:21:29,556 --> 01:21:33,351
<i>[soft dramatic music]</i>

1873
01:21:33,351 --> 01:21:35,520
<i>Today Planet
images the entire Earth</i>

1874
01:21:35,520 --> 01:21:37,105
<i>every single day.</i>

1875
01:21:37,105 --> 01:21:38,648
<i>Mission accomplished.</i>

1876
01:21:38,648 --> 01:21:40,859
[applause]

1877
01:21:40,859 --> 01:21:41,943
Thank you.

1878
01:21:41,943 --> 01:21:44,029
<i>What's Mission 2?</i>

1879
01:21:44,029 --> 01:21:45,989
<i>It's space plus AI.</i>

1880
01:21:47,240 --> 01:21:51,036
I'm really excited
about the future of AI

1881
01:21:51,036 --> 01:21:53,329
on top of Planet's data.

1882
01:21:53,329 --> 01:21:55,665
<i>You know, we're scanning
the whole Earth every day--</i>

1883
01:21:55,665 --> 01:21:58,668
<i>4 million pictures
of the Earth each day.</i>

1884
01:21:58,668 --> 01:22:00,712
It's an insane amount of data.

1885
01:22:00,712 --> 01:22:02,881
<i>By turning each picture
into information</i>

1886
01:22:02,881 --> 01:22:05,133
<i>about what's going on
in that picture,</i>

1887
01:22:05,133 --> 01:22:07,135
<i>we're enabling you
to search the Earth.</i>

1888
01:22:07,135 --> 01:22:10,972
The potential there is to do
planetary-scale forensics,

1889
01:22:10,972 --> 01:22:13,558
<i>to look back in time
through our archive</i>

1890
01:22:13,558 --> 01:22:15,560
<i>and find things
that you didn't even know now</i>

1891
01:22:15,560 --> 01:22:17,062
<i>you needed to look for.</i>

1892
01:22:17,062 --> 01:22:19,647
<i>Planet, in a way, has turned
on the time machine.</i>

1893
01:22:19,647 --> 01:22:21,149
<i>We're getting to the point</i>

1894
01:22:21,149 --> 01:22:24,152
where you don't even have
to train the AI

1895
01:22:24,152 --> 01:22:26,154
on any object
you want to find.

1896
01:22:26,154 --> 01:22:28,948
<i>You can actually just show it
one example.</i>

1897
01:22:28,948 --> 01:22:30,283
<i>And it will just go</i>

1898
01:22:30,283 --> 01:22:32,369
<i>and find all of the others
automatically,</i>

1899
01:22:32,369 --> 01:22:33,745
<i>even find things</i>

1900
01:22:33,745 --> 01:22:35,622
<i>you don't even know
you want to look for.</i>

1901
01:22:35,622 --> 01:22:38,500
It's just getting to a point
of tremendous power

1902
01:22:38,500 --> 01:22:41,586
that is much simpler now
than it was

1903
01:22:41,586 --> 01:22:43,797
even just a year ago.

1904
01:22:43,797 --> 01:22:46,132
<i>There is opportunity
and risk</i>

1905
01:22:46,132 --> 01:22:47,509
<i>in the commercial sector.</i>

1906
01:22:47,509 --> 01:22:49,052
I think we'll see
more innovation.

1907
01:22:49,052 --> 01:22:51,554
And we'll see things
moving faster.

1908
01:22:51,554 --> 01:22:54,182
That also means
that there is a shifting

1909
01:22:54,182 --> 01:22:56,017
of where power is coming from.

1910
01:22:59,145 --> 01:23:01,606
<i>In Ukraine's fight to push
out Russian invaders...</i>

1911
01:23:01,606 --> 01:23:02,941
<i>[gunfire]</i>

1912
01:23:02,941 --> 01:23:05,193
<i>One of the most critical
pieces of technology</i>

1913
01:23:05,193 --> 01:23:07,195
<i>doesn't fire rockets
or bullets.</i>

1914
01:23:07,195 --> 01:23:10,365
<i>It's small, easy-to-use
satellite internet terminals</i>

1915
01:23:10,365 --> 01:23:11,366
<i>called Starlink.</i>

1916
01:23:11,366 --> 01:23:12,992
[person shouts in Ukrainian]

1917
01:23:12,992 --> 01:23:15,203
<i>And they've been vital
for soldiers' communication,</i>

1918
01:23:15,203 --> 01:23:18,373
<i>flying drones,
and artillery targeting.</i>

1919
01:23:18,373 --> 01:23:21,459
<i>Antennas had been put
all over Ukraine.</i>

1920
01:23:21,459 --> 01:23:23,128
<i>The military
could communicate.</i>

1921
01:23:23,128 --> 01:23:24,796
<i>The government
could communicate.</i>

1922
01:23:24,796 --> 01:23:29,426
All of Russia's best-laid plans
were now under serious threat.

1923
01:23:29,426 --> 01:23:31,219
<i>You can make
a very strong case</i>

1924
01:23:31,219 --> 01:23:33,638
<i>that Ukraine was able
to fight this war successfully</i>

1925
01:23:33,638 --> 01:23:35,598
because of this technology.

1926
01:23:35,598 --> 01:23:37,267
<i>Last week reports emerged</i>

1927
01:23:37,267 --> 01:23:41,312
<i>of widespread sudden Starlink
outages on the front line.</i>

1928
01:23:41,312 --> 01:23:43,815
Is that something that
SpaceX is doing intentionally?

1929
01:23:43,815 --> 01:23:47,652
<i>Elon Musk has complete
control of the technology</i>

1930
01:23:47,652 --> 01:23:51,573
<i>and can turn off satellites
whenever he wants.</i>

1931
01:23:51,573 --> 01:23:55,452
<i>If Elon wants Starlink
to be running in Ukraine,</i>

1932
01:23:55,452 --> 01:23:56,786
it's running in Ukraine.

1933
01:23:56,786 --> 01:23:59,456
<i>When he decides he's had
a nice phone call</i>

1934
01:23:59,456 --> 01:24:02,459
<i>with Vladimir Putin and he
wants to turn Starlink off,</i>

1935
01:24:02,459 --> 01:24:03,626
<i>he can do that.</i>

1936
01:24:03,626 --> 01:24:06,463
The U.S. government,
European allies--

1937
01:24:06,463 --> 01:24:08,340
there's nothing they can do.

1938
01:24:08,340 --> 01:24:10,842
They have nothing
equivalent to Starlink

1939
01:24:10,842 --> 01:24:12,844
to replace this technology.

1940
01:24:12,844 --> 01:24:15,680
Musk says
he was reportedly afraid

1941
01:24:15,680 --> 01:24:19,351
that Russia would retaliate
with nuclear weapons.

1942
01:24:19,351 --> 01:24:22,645
Musk says that's based
on his private discussions

1943
01:24:22,645 --> 01:24:26,900
he had
with senior Russian officials.

1944
01:24:26,900 --> 01:24:30,278
<i>This is one
grand regime change</i>

1945
01:24:30,278 --> 01:24:33,573
from countries that used
to control all this power

1946
01:24:33,573 --> 01:24:35,033
now to individuals.

1947
01:24:35,033 --> 01:24:37,118
<i>That has military
and political leaders</i>

1948
01:24:37,118 --> 01:24:40,830
<i>around the world worried
and questioning</i>

1949
01:24:40,830 --> 01:24:45,418
<i>whether one man should have
complete control of the skies.</i>

1950
01:24:45,418 --> 01:24:48,588
<i>Russia may be keeping
an additional eye</i>

1951
01:24:48,588 --> 01:24:50,632
on the war in Ukraine
from space.

1952
01:24:50,632 --> 01:24:53,343
<i>The Americans claim
that China is using</i>

1953
01:24:53,343 --> 01:24:54,928
<i>its low Earth orbit satellites</i>

1954
01:24:54,928 --> 01:24:58,723
to spy on American
military installations.

1955
01:24:58,723 --> 01:25:00,642
<i>Satellites are a target.</i>

1956
01:25:00,642 --> 01:25:02,894
If you can destroy the enemy's
satellite capability,

1957
01:25:02,894 --> 01:25:05,730
then you can get
a decisive advantage.

1958
01:25:05,730 --> 01:25:08,233
<i>India launched
its first successful</i>

1959
01:25:08,233 --> 01:25:10,318
<i>anti-satellite missile
on Wednesday.</i>

1960
01:25:10,318 --> 01:25:11,945
<i>There are
many different ways</i>

1961
01:25:11,945 --> 01:25:13,780
<i>you can do
an anti-satellite test.</i>

1962
01:25:13,780 --> 01:25:15,865
One of them is to launch
a missile from the ground

1963
01:25:15,865 --> 01:25:18,076
and hit your own satellite,
which just, you know,

1964
01:25:18,076 --> 01:25:19,828
breaks up
into a million pieces.

1965
01:25:19,828 --> 01:25:23,331
<i>Outrage from U.S. officials
after Russia carried out</i>

1966
01:25:23,331 --> 01:25:25,083
<i>a missile test early Monday,</i>

1967
01:25:25,083 --> 01:25:27,419
<i>obliterating one of its own satellites</i>

1968
01:25:27,419 --> 01:25:29,421
<i>and creating
a vast debris field</i>

1969
01:25:29,421 --> 01:25:31,381
<i>that's now orbiting Earth.</i>

1970
01:25:31,381 --> 01:25:35,760
They launched a missile into
a defunct 1982 spy satellite

1971
01:25:35,760 --> 01:25:37,178
that they owned

1972
01:25:37,178 --> 01:25:39,931
to show that they could do that
to an American satellite

1973
01:25:39,931 --> 01:25:42,434
if they were so moved.

1974
01:25:42,434 --> 01:25:44,561
<i>So now you have
thousands of satellites</i>

1975
01:25:44,561 --> 01:25:47,605
which themselves are
potentially weapons.

1976
01:25:47,605 --> 01:25:50,734
<i>You know, one of
the big concerns is that,</i>

1977
01:25:50,734 --> 01:25:52,694
<i>in an actual warfare,
if somebody did that,</i>

1978
01:25:52,694 --> 01:25:55,780
they may, you know,
even accidentally

1979
01:25:55,780 --> 01:25:58,783
sort of ruin low Earth orbit
for use.

1980
01:25:58,783 --> 01:26:01,745
<i>So there's a thing
we call the Kessler effect.</i>

1981
01:26:01,745 --> 01:26:04,873
If you have a satellite
that explodes

1982
01:26:04,873 --> 01:26:08,126
and now all of its pieces
are going different directions

1983
01:26:08,126 --> 01:26:09,711
at 17,000 miles an hour,

1984
01:26:09,711 --> 01:26:12,714
<i>some of them are gonna hit
other satellites eventually.</i>

1985
01:26:12,714 --> 01:26:15,133
<i>And then if that makes
that satellite break apart,</i>

1986
01:26:15,133 --> 01:26:17,385
<i>now you have a chain reaction.</i>

1987
01:26:17,385 --> 01:26:20,388
<i>Letting that chain reaction
run to completion,</i>

1988
01:26:20,388 --> 01:26:23,475
you can end up
with all of the spacecraft

1989
01:26:23,475 --> 01:26:27,645
<i>in low Earth orbit
getting shredded to confetti.</i>

1990
01:26:30,273 --> 01:26:31,608
<i>The regulatory bodies</i>

1991
01:26:31,608 --> 01:26:33,401
<i>that look over
these kinds of things</i>

1992
01:26:33,401 --> 01:26:35,403
<i>are just ill-equipped
and unprepared</i>

1993
01:26:35,403 --> 01:26:37,864
<i>for what has descended
upon them.</i>

1994
01:26:37,864 --> 01:26:41,284
They were used to a world
that changed very slowly,

1995
01:26:41,284 --> 01:26:43,620
that they had
a lot of control over

1996
01:26:43,620 --> 01:26:45,830
and monitoring.

1997
01:26:45,830 --> 01:26:48,917
There's no place to say,
where are we heading

1998
01:26:48,917 --> 01:26:52,379
with our space activities
in the very long term?

1999
01:26:52,379 --> 01:26:54,923
<i>The track record
of the human species</i>

2000
01:26:54,923 --> 01:26:57,300
<i>is not that great.</i>

2001
01:26:57,300 --> 01:26:58,843
All of these issues

2002
01:26:58,843 --> 01:27:01,221
that cause us trouble
here on Earth,

2003
01:27:01,221 --> 01:27:03,223
we're gonna export them
into space.

2004
01:27:03,223 --> 01:27:05,642
That's just the way it is.

2005
01:27:05,642 --> 01:27:08,520
<i>[solemn music]</i>

2006
01:27:08,520 --> 01:27:10,855
<i>♪ ♪</i>

2007
01:27:10,855 --> 01:27:15,360
<i>Exactly how this plays out
is anyone's guess.</i>

2008
01:27:15,360 --> 01:27:17,445
<i>It reminds me of, like,</i>

2009
01:27:17,445 --> 01:27:20,156
<i>the early days
of the Internet.</i>

2010
01:27:20,156 --> 01:27:22,659
You think, like, Yahoo's
gonna be around forever,

2011
01:27:22,659 --> 01:27:26,079
you know, and then,
like, Google comes along.

2012
01:27:26,079 --> 01:27:28,873
<i>I think
we're at this stage now</i>

2013
01:27:28,873 --> 01:27:32,836
where the wheat is being
separated from the chaff.

2014
01:27:32,836 --> 01:27:34,671
<i>One time,
there was something like</i>

2015
01:27:34,671 --> 01:27:37,507
<i>over 100 small rocket startups
globally--</i>

2016
01:27:37,507 --> 01:27:39,551
<i>in many cases
more significantly funded</i>

2017
01:27:39,551 --> 01:27:40,802
<i>than Rocket Lab.</i>

2018
01:27:40,802 --> 01:27:43,054
You know, lots of dreams,
lots of aspiration,

2019
01:27:43,054 --> 01:27:45,056
lots of cash.

2020
01:27:45,056 --> 01:27:47,892
At the end of the day,
physics just does not care

2021
01:27:47,892 --> 01:27:49,686
how much money you put in it.

2022
01:27:49,686 --> 01:27:51,479
<i>It is great
to be joining you today</i>

2023
01:27:51,479 --> 01:27:53,314
<i>from Rocket Lab
mission control</i>

2024
01:27:53,314 --> 01:27:54,566
<i>in Auckland, New Zealand,</i>

2025
01:27:54,566 --> 01:27:57,819
<i>to send our 42nd Electron
to orbit.</i>

2026
01:27:57,819 --> 01:28:04,909
<i>♪ ♪</i>

2027
01:28:07,245 --> 01:28:10,415
I don't know.
I don't know.

2028
01:28:10,415 --> 01:28:12,417
<i>Stage two ignition
confirmed.</i>

2029
01:28:12,417 --> 01:28:15,670
<i>[cheers and applause]</i>

2030
01:28:18,757 --> 01:28:21,926
<i>Rocket Lab's launched
over 40 rockets.</i>

2031
01:28:21,926 --> 01:28:23,428
<i>It's doing reusable rockets.</i>

2032
01:28:23,428 --> 01:28:24,929
It's building a bigger rocket
to compete

2033
01:28:24,929 --> 01:28:27,349
head-to-head with SpaceX.

2034
01:28:27,349 --> 01:28:29,100
<i>They've done it.</i>

2035
01:28:29,100 --> 01:28:30,935
There's SpaceX,
and there's Rocket Lab.

2036
01:28:30,935 --> 01:28:32,729
There's Elon Musk
and Peter Beck,

2037
01:28:32,729 --> 01:28:34,773
and that's pretty much it.

2038
01:28:37,776 --> 01:28:41,446
<i>The only sin in business
is to run out of money.</i>

2039
01:28:43,615 --> 01:28:45,408
<i>That's why,
when we still have money,</i>

2040
01:28:45,408 --> 01:28:48,620
<i>we need to make
the tough choices to cut.</i>

2041
01:28:50,246 --> 01:28:52,332
<i>So, fundamentally,
it's all about</i>

2042
01:28:52,332 --> 01:28:55,168
<i>doing what we have to do
to survive,</i>

2043
01:28:55,168 --> 01:28:56,711
<i>to take care of our customers,</i>

2044
01:28:56,711 --> 01:28:58,713
<i>and now take care
of our shareholders.</i>

2045
01:28:58,713 --> 01:29:01,091
♪ ♪

2046
01:29:01,091 --> 01:29:02,342
<i>Hell of a day.</i>

2047
01:29:02,342 --> 01:29:03,968
Yeah, it's been
a hell of a day.

2048
01:29:03,968 --> 01:29:10,975
♪ ♪

2049
01:29:10,975 --> 01:29:15,563
So I actually feel
a bit relieved

2050
01:29:15,563 --> 01:29:17,774
to be on the other side
of that.

2051
01:29:17,774 --> 01:29:20,110
<i>We've had to make
some difficult cuts.</i>

2052
01:29:20,110 --> 01:29:22,779
We've moved some people around.

2053
01:29:22,779 --> 01:29:25,573
We've prioritized the things

2054
01:29:25,573 --> 01:29:28,576
that are keeping
the business going.

2055
01:29:28,576 --> 01:29:32,205
So we can continue
to work on everything.

2056
01:29:34,332 --> 01:29:37,335
<i>In a way, we're good at this,
because...</i>

2057
01:29:37,335 --> 01:29:38,837
<i>you know, when you spend years</i>

2058
01:29:38,837 --> 01:29:41,965
<i>building a really
complicated machine</i>

2059
01:29:41,965 --> 01:29:45,010
and a boat gets in your way...

2060
01:29:45,010 --> 01:29:47,303
ten seconds away from launch,

2061
01:29:47,303 --> 01:29:49,305
you just realize you have
to come back tomorrow,

2062
01:29:49,305 --> 01:29:50,682
do it all again.

2063
01:29:50,682 --> 01:29:52,851
[laughs]
It's like Groundhog Day.

2064
01:29:52,851 --> 01:29:55,186
[laughs]

2065
01:29:55,186 --> 01:29:57,105
- I mean, realistically...
- Yeah.

2066
01:29:57,105 --> 01:29:58,690
What's the possibility
you'll go out?

2067
01:29:58,690 --> 01:30:01,609
Oh, no, no, no, I'm saying
that we're gonna do this.

2068
01:30:01,609 --> 01:30:03,361
I know,
but there is a possibility

2069
01:30:03,361 --> 01:30:05,030
that you guys will go
out of business.

2070
01:30:05,030 --> 01:30:07,866
I mean, sure, if I die.

2071
01:30:07,866 --> 01:30:09,367
[laughs]

2072
01:30:09,367 --> 01:30:10,952
But as long as I'm alive,

2073
01:30:10,952 --> 01:30:13,872
we're gonna make
this thing come together.

2074
01:30:13,872 --> 01:30:16,875
I mean, I'm not giving up.

2075
01:30:16,875 --> 01:30:18,835
If you look at this,
this is a giant, open space...

2076
01:30:18,835 --> 01:30:20,712
<i>When I met Chris
for the first time</i>

2077
01:30:20,712 --> 01:30:23,882
<i>in these totally shitty,
dilapidated buildings</i>

2078
01:30:23,882 --> 01:30:25,842
<i>in Alameda
and he told me,</i>

2079
01:30:25,842 --> 01:30:29,054
"One day, these will be
gleaming rocket factories,"

2080
01:30:29,054 --> 01:30:31,139
I thought, no way.

2081
01:30:31,139 --> 01:30:33,350
And he did build those.

2082
01:30:33,350 --> 01:30:36,644
He did exactly what he said
he was gonna do.

2083
01:30:36,644 --> 01:30:38,772
It just didn't work out.

2084
01:30:40,690 --> 01:30:43,568
<i>[soft dramatic music]</i>

2085
01:30:43,568 --> 01:30:50,658
<i>♪ ♪</i>

2086
01:33:30,235 --> 01:33:33,113
[bright tone]