Rocket Lab CEO Says $8 Billion Iridium Deal Won’t Take on Elon Musk’s Starlink — Don’t Intend to 'Directly Compete,’ But Plans Something That 'Hasn’t Been Seen Before’

Badar Shaikh

August 21, 2026 5 min read

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Rocket Lab CorporationCEO Peter Becksaid the company's acquisition of Iridium Communications Inc.would help the Space Exploration Technologies Corp.rival expand its satellite communications business.

Peter Beck Backs Iridium Deal

During an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Beck said that the planned $8 billion Iridium acquisition deal would help Rocket Lab serve the "life-saving and critical services that Iridium has done really successfully," adding that it did not intend to "directly compete" with satellite-based internet services like Elon Musk's Starlinkor Amazon.com Inc.'s Leo.

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"Our intention here is obviously to grow the constellation, but not to compete directly with internet services," Beck said, calling it a "well-served" market. He also outlined defense opportunities with the acquisition and touted the importance of Iridium's spectrum.

"You can have as much aspiration as you want, but if you don't have spectrum, you can't really provide those services," he said. Beck touted Iridium's L-band spectrum, which, unlike traditional broadband spectrum, was capable of penetrating bad weather and buildings.

Beck then said that with time, as Rocket Lab increases launches and the ability to scale the constellation, it could "increase the penetration of these services and provide something new and unique that hasn't been seen before."

Beck also outlined the advantages of having a low-Earth orbit constellation, as it could provide nations with the ability to replace damaged satellites within hours.

Rocket Lab Wins Defense Contract

The news comes as Rocket Lab was onboarded to the United States Space Force's NITE-STAR program, which is a $981 million contract vehicle supporting space test and training infrastructure. Other companies part of the program include Firefly Aerospace Inc., L3Harris Technologies Inc., Lockheed Martin Corpand more.

Photo: Piotr Swat / Shutterstock

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