Vector changes CEO, might have money issues
Capitalism in space: Jim Cantrell, who had been the CEO of smallsat rocket company Vector Launch since inception, has apparently left the company.
Vector, a micro-launch company founded in 2016 to build small rockets for payloads of up to 60kg, may be in financial trouble, multiple industry sources told Ars on Friday. A spokeswoman for Vector did not comment on that. However, she did confirm the company has parted ways with its chief executive: “Jim Cantrell is no longer with Vector effective today. John Garvey has assumed the role of CEO.”
I wish this story wasn’t so, though I also admit my instincts were telling me things were going sour with the continuing delays in their test launch schedule.
Jim Cantrell was an unusual CEO, always available and open. He generously took me on personal tours of Vector facilities, twice, first in March 2017 and again in January 2019. I wish him well in whatever future endeavors he undetakes.
As for Vector, they need to get off the ground. They had had a substantial head start over many of the other new smallsat rocket companies, but that lead has now evaporated.
More information here. It appears one of their major investors might have pulled out. It also appears they have temporarily suspended operations, shuttering their offices.
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Capitalism in space: Jim Cantrell, who had been the CEO of smallsat rocket company Vector Launch since inception, has apparently left the company.
Vector, a micro-launch company founded in 2016 to build small rockets for payloads of up to 60kg, may be in financial trouble, multiple industry sources told Ars on Friday. A spokeswoman for Vector did not comment on that. However, she did confirm the company has parted ways with its chief executive: “Jim Cantrell is no longer with Vector effective today. John Garvey has assumed the role of CEO.”
I wish this story wasn’t so, though I also admit my instincts were telling me things were going sour with the continuing delays in their test launch schedule.
Jim Cantrell was an unusual CEO, always available and open. He generously took me on personal tours of Vector facilities, twice, first in March 2017 and again in January 2019. I wish him well in whatever future endeavors he undetakes.
As for Vector, they need to get off the ground. They had had a substantial head start over many of the other new smallsat rocket companies, but that lead has now evaporated.
More information here. It appears one of their major investors might have pulled out. It also appears they have temporarily suspended operations, shuttering their offices.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
I think the big issue with vector is that the top brass had a lot of great people but they are mostly tinkerers. For this kind of business you need the have a plan and execute straight forward and then make course corrections as needed. If you spend all your time in the lab, you don’t fly much. The highest altitude they have flown as a company can be beaten by just about any Tripoli Level 3 rocketeer. For as long as they have been around, that doesn’t look good.
Given that, I do hope they can course correct, get the funding they need and move forward to flights.
Joe: Though I think there is some truth in what you say about Vector’s top brass being “tinkerers,” I found myself very amused that this comment was coming from a guy essentially building cubesats in his garage.
Let’s put this in perspective. Something like nine out ten start ups fail – doesn’t matter what the industry. The fact that there are failures is proof the system is working. It’s Joseph Schumpeter’s “Creative Destruction” – firms which fail to meet the demands of the market are broken up and their resources redistributed to firms that do. So while I wish Vector and everyone else except Richard Branson success in the business of space, I accept that there will be casualties. The time to worry is when no one fails – that’s when something is fishy (like to government intervening).
From the Ars Technica article: “The rocket’s engines and their novel use of a liquid oxygen and liquid propylene fuel have worked as intended, but the fuel tanks were too heavy. So engineers had to re-work the vehicle to lower its overall mass.”
This has me a bit confused. It suggests that there was an early design problem, as the rocket’s weight should have been well known at design time, and if the engines perform as intended, then they must have known at design time that the rocket could not reach orbit. The only other thing that I can think of is that the rocket has more drag in the lower atmosphere than was expected.
From the Space News article: “Industry sources claim that one of Vector’s largest venture capital backers, Sequoia, withdrew its funding for the company.”
It is clear that the company has a financial problem, but it is not clear whether Sequoia withdrew due to technical problems or if there were other factors.