Untold Rocket Lab & Astra stories with Ashlee Vance

A new HBO Original documentary takes you inside the minds of misfits who unleashed a commercial assault on low-earth orbit. Bloomberg journalist Ashlee Vance tells me how he made it happen.

00:00 - Intro
00:26 - Wild, Wild Space
01:48 - Interview with Ashlee Vance
04:20 - Why Rocket Lab & Astra
05:45 - Filming in New Zealand
08:24 - Insider access
11:09 - Chris Kemp v Peter Beck
14:15 - 'The full story' of how movie was made
24:21 - SpaceX (Elon Musk) v Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos) v Rocket Lab (Beck)
28:03 - NASA
31:23 - Concerns (Russia)
34:55 - Outro

Videography / Editing | Corey Fleming, Carson Bluck, HBO

[MarketsWithMadison]

The collab no one asked for but we made for you anyway! haha
Ashlee sets the standard for space coverage. I loved chatting to him about RKLB, ASTR, NASA, NZ, Russia's space industry and more.
Go and watch his new documentary Wild, Wild Space on HBO (or Neon in New Zealand)!

[HypaWave]

Bloody brilliant and light hearted interview.
It also cleared up some reasons as to why there seemed to be less candid Rocket Lab/ Peter Beck moments compared to Astra.

[regolith]

What a fantastic video!! I especially appreciated the part beginning at 24:13.

Ashlee's insight on the pivotal impact of top leadership is something that doesn't get discussed nearly enough. As a culture, we in the West in recent decades have lurched into a highly deterministic, almost anti-humanist, "structural" view of the world in which individuals don't matter, where only large structures, large movements, large trends & patterns matter. It's refreshing to hear him describe the clear difference engendered by Elon Musk's and Peter Beck's leadership at SpaceX and Rocket Lab, compared to their market counterparts.

The media attention lavished on Blue Origin tends to get under my skin precisely because it's so unearned. The number of articles, books, news reports, and documentaries that mention SpaceX and Blue Origin in the same breath (thus granting them roughly equal status), must number in the THOUSANDS, despite Blue Origin having never launched anything into orbit at all. This is why people are so surprised when they learn how radically different the two companies' accomplishments actually are.

[DonaldMovies]

"Unleashed a commercial assault on low earth orbit" hahaha absolutely incredible. Well done, great interview

[akwilly]

Great interview. Thank you for all you do

[davidtuson]

Your channel is amazingly informative. I'm hooked. Keep it up!

[dave]

Thanks for the deep dives on this topic. I am a big Rocket Lab investor, and appreciate the focus on such a remarkable company.

[paulcarter]

Another great space industry interview - you're knocking it out of the park Madison !

[Shaydon]

So glad you made this happen, Iove all the extra info and great interview and questions 🤙 keep it up, let's get more people talking about Peter Beck and rocket lab

[redstarr]

Great interview Madison. Earned a sub!

[kiwi_welltraveled]

Another excellent interview, thank you Madison.

My biggest concern for space is the Kessler
We are putting so much stuff up there, all it will need is a serious collision with a couple of sizable satellites.
The resulting space debris will cascade to such a degree that, by our own making, we become trapped within the planet.


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[tamatiamai]

I'm New Zealand. I loved Rocket lab.

[peterarmstrong]

I’m very glad I have invested in Rocket Lab after seeing Wild Wild Space.

[ctoble]

Great Interview! Would have loved to have asked why other small launch companies were not covered in the film? I.e.; Vector Launch, Virgin Orbit, Firefly, Relativity, Spinlaunch, etc..

[GuyFromGeorgia]

Watched the doc last night. It was very good. Confirmed my faith that Rocket Lab might very well earn a seat at the table, after all. My portfolio would appreciate it, $RKLB! May have to break down and get Ashlee's Elon book.

[adrianoihkfjhgc]

My friend works for RocketLab as a rocket scientist (or aeronautical engineer as he calls it)

[jaredoelderink-wale]

Great interview. Pretty sure your Web Cam was going crazy with Black Top, Half Black+White Walls

[braydeny]

The ceiling on this channel is massive

[aldunlop]

I've followed SpaceX from Day 1, maybe even before, and it's incredibly frustrating to me how he's treated by the media and opinionated children on places like Reddit. He wasn't even a billionaire when the fourth flight of Falcon 1 launched. The first 3 test vehicles failed. He was basically out of money, and if flight 4 failed, SpaceX was DONE. Luckily (and with a ton of hard work from the engineers), it was a success, and they got the contract from NASA to supply the ISS. Since then Gwynne Shotwell has done an awesome job running the company, and it's all led to current successes.

[boraxediagnostics]

Did he just say he had PTSD after his encounters with Elon Musk?1😂😂