hello. Welcome back to TechCrunch Space. TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is over. I am very excited about the amazing space industry programming we have delivered this year.
We covered everything from building dual-use businesses to re-entry into orbit, caught up with Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck, and heard about ground station issues from Bridgit Mendler. We’ve covered some of the highlights below, but that’s just a fraction of the topics we covered on stage, so go to TechCrunch.com for the full story. (Not to mention The Aerospace Corporation’s Future Space Operations Pitch Challenge!)
Want to tip? Email Aria. aria.techcrunch@gmail.com Or send a message on Signal at 512-937-3988. You can also send a note to the TechCrunch team at tips@techcrunch.com. For safer communicationClick here to contact us with SecureDrop instructions and a link to the encrypted messaging app.
Former Disney Channel star Bridgit Mendler made a splash when she announced she was co-founding a space startup focused on the least sexy aspect of the industry: ground stations. We talked about her past career in the entertainment industry and her future steps as CEO of Space.
“If we really want to realize the interests of the world’s people, we need to invest in unsexy problems like building networks on the ground,” Mendler said. “Personally, I think it’s pretty sexy and fun. It’s not at all what most people think of when they think of the space industry. I think they think about rockets and satellites, but they don’t think about ground infrastructure.”
All eyes will be on Rocket Lab early next year. That’s because the company is about to launch its Neutron rocket, which, as CEO Peter Beck put it on stage, is the answer to the “mid-launch monopoly” that exists today. This is part of the company’s plan to build an end-to-end space company.
In fact, launches are far from the only core part of the business. Rocket Lab also builds spacecraft for interplanetary missions, supplies spacecraft parts, and more. One of Neutron’s purposes is to enable repeated launches of Rocket Lab’s own satellites.
“Spaceships are much easier to build than rockets,” Beck said. “It really is.”
He also talked about expanding the space supply chain, adding the anecdote that Sinclair Interplanetary, a spacecraft parts company that Rocket Lab acquired in 2020, used to produce 150 reaction wheels but has now expanded production to more than 2,000 per year.
More about TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
