Peter Beck may not be a household name like Elon Musk, but the New Zealander has ambitions just as big. Beck is the founder and CEO of Rocket Lab, a major player in the evolving private space industry.

“I was always frustrated that I wasn’t born during the Apollo era, because it’s easy to look at that time period and think that was the time to be in the space industry,” Beck told Al Jazeera. “But, really, now is the time to be alive in the space industry.”

Rocket Lab was founded in 2006 in New Zealand, a country which lacks its own space programme. But the company’s first rocket was only made years later. The rocket, named Electron, has now undertaken 21 flights and become one of the most prolific rocket models out there.

Rocket Lab is designing its rockets not just for lunar missions like the upcoming CAPSTONE mission, but also interplanetary ones.

“I’m strangely attracted to the most difficult things,” Beck said. “When we arrived at the point where we thought we could build a spacecraft that could go and do independent science, we decided it was time to venture out into the solar system.”

“When we were developing this spacecraft to go to the Moon we thought if we’re developing it to go to the Moon, then let’s develop it to go anywhere,” he added.

While Elon Musk and SpaceX have set their sights on Mars, Rocket Lab is looking in the other direction. It is aspiring to land on Venus instead. The company will try to be the first private company to send a spacecraft to Earth’s sister planet.

“It’s incredibly lucky that I’ve arrived at a point where I have a spacecraft to do just that,” he said. “Venus is an incredibly interesting target, and one of the closest planets to Earth that could support life.”

“So we’re going to go and hunt around to see if we can find signs of life in the clouds of Venus,” he added.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)