Of my youngest childhood memories. So, and I remember standing outside with my father and he was pointing to the sky and, you know, noted that every one of those stars in the sky, the Sun, pretty much all of them has planets around them and there could be somebody staring back at you. And that, just that kind of scale of the vastness and the unknown is really, really what captivated me.
That's inspiring. So you launched two different rockets from two different hemispheres in one weekend. How significant accomplishment was that?
Yeah, well, look, launching rockets in quick succession has become somewhat normalized, but I don't think anybody's done it from under 24 hours in two hemispheres from either side of the planet in short succession. So that was a great milestone. And they were completely unrelated missions. It's just we've got a bunch of customers and we're busy and we just had to light up two launch pads and let it go. Just keeping your head down and grinding.
I love it. So you see all the way up. What's next? What's in store on December 18th?
Yeah, so this is a customer. It's one of our largest constellation customers, a customer out of Japan. And we actually signed a deal with them earlier this year for a 10-launch block buy. And this is just making good on that. So this is a synthetic aperture radar constellation, and we've launched them I think five times already previous to this. So a great customer.
Who's your biggest customer?
So our customer base basically kind of bisects into 50% government and 50% commercial. So we do a lot of work for the US government on a number of programs, both National Security and civil. So a number of missions for NASA. And then commercial customers range quite frankly from the big blue-chip defense primes that you would expect, right through to, I think, one of my favorite missions was we launched a little 6U CubeSat for California Irvine high school students. So really a pretty broad spectrum.
It is indeed. And you've arguably blown by giants like Lockheed Martin, even Boeing. What's allowed for that, do you think? And big picture, have you done things differently than others?
Yeah, well, I think, look, launch is always a thing that everybody gets excited about, right? It's the big fiery stick roaring to the sky. But actually two-thirds of our business is our Space Systems business, which is building satellites and infrastructure on orbit. So the one thing that makes Rocket Lab a little bit different is, we've obviously talked a lot about the rockets, but we're an end-to-end space company. So what that means is a customer can come to us and say, hey, I want this communication or this Earth observation thing from orbit, and we're one of the very few companies that can design the satellite, use all the company's own components to build the satellite, and then once it's built, launch it on our own rocket, and then once it's in orbit, actually operate it for our customer to just provide data. So you think about the traditional way you go to space is you have to become an expert in orbital dynamics, build a spacecraft, then procure launch, then be an expert in operating spacecraft in orbit. Well, we just don't think that's the way of the future. So we've created this kind of end-to-end solution here where we're like the one-stop shop for space.
And what is your ultimate goal here with Rocket Lab?
Yeah, well, if you look at the space industry, you can think about it in three different pillars. So you have launch, which is really critical, and that's about a $12 billion TAM. Then you have Space Systems or satellites or the infrastructure, that's 20 to 30 billion TAM. And then you have applications, and that's a $320 billion TAM. Applications being all of the things that you do from space. So, for example, all the services that come from space. And ultimately what we're trying to do is position ourselves to provide those services, because obviously that is a much larger market opportunity. But it's pretty disruptive when you have the ability to build your own satellite and launch it. Well, the timeframe and the cost that you can build those infrastructure plays in is just far shortened. So it becomes very competitive at that point.
As inspiring as a rocket launch is and space is, what are those applications you're referencing? So many people wonder why are we spending so much money on space. So practically speaking, what are those things we hope to accomplish?
Look, that's a great question. And I think space is hidden infrastructure. So apart from a little dot that might streak across the sky, you really don't see it. But the reality is we use space in our everyday lives all of the time. If you turn off GPS, your pizza doesn't turn up. So it's tremendously integrated into our everyday lives. But I think what's been really exciting for me to watch over the last sort of five to ten years is that a lot of companies that are not natural owners of space infrastructure are becoming that. You think about the Amazon Kuiper constellation to provide internet down on Earth. You think of Apple's satellite-enabled iPhones now, direct-to-mobile communications. Starlink is another great example. I mean, is SpaceX now still a space company or is it a telecommunications company? And I think that really proves the power of having the ability to build a satellite and then launch it by yourself, is that it becomes blurry whether or not you're a space company or a telecommunications company or an application company. And I think honestly that is what all of the big space companies of the future are going to look like.
Interesting. Is space tourism a part of your ultimate model? And do you think there will come a point in time, 20, 30, 40, 50, 80 years from now, that people could live in space?
Yeah, look, it's not currently part of our current trajectory. In saying that, the Neutron rocket that we're developing right now, which is a medium-class launch vehicle, is human flight capable. But right now, if I look across it, there's really one customer being NASA, and there's one and a half really good providers of human space flight in the US. So it's kind of a limited market and a well-served market today. But I definitely think that in the future, as more things occur in low Earth orbit, obviously the space station is predicted to become a commercial venture at some point, then there'll be a lot more destinations and a lot more customers for space tourism. And I think it will become a real market. But right now, it's a very constrained market really, with one government customer.
