Was it a bomb, or a rocket?
On an isolated Southland river bank in the 1950s, three friends set on launching a rocket nearly launched themselves instead. Kevin Norquay reports on the explosion that almost killed Rocket Lab.
Seven decades before Rocket Lab boss Peter Beck sent a rocket to the Moon, his father Russell dabbled with his own launch, with spectacularly explosive results that created a moon-like crater on the banks of the O¯ reti River in Southland.
Like son, like father, Russell was a rocket man, building a metre-long missile in his father’s Invercargill motor garage, using engineering equipment with help from his younger brother, Doug.
Lower Hutt retiree Alan Ross well recalls the day in the mid-1950s the Becks got him involved in an attempt to launch the rocket, which had tail fins, a nose cone, and even a metal launch pad.
Ross was on holiday visiting his grandmother, who operated a dairy on the corner of Herbert and Park streets in Invercargill, one house away from the Beck family.
‘‘Russell was an exciting person to be around; his enthusiasm and passion was palpable,’’ Ross recalls.
The kind of guy who could talk you into risky activities, as it proved.
Ross spent a day grinding a black compound to be used in the rocket’s solid fuel.
Made from exhaust tubing, the rocket had a short piece of narrower tube to create pressure and more thrust, and alloy filings from a Volkswagen crankcase known to burn fiercely, creating a lot of expansion and smoke.
It was a mix that would send the whole contraption soaring skyward. Well, that was the theory, anyway.
Preparation complete, the trio drove in a Land Rover to a sandy area near the O¯ reti River mouth.
The first site chosen had attracted unwanted onlookers, so option two was used.
Launch procedure began: that involved taking turns to light the fuse with matches, then a rapid retreat to the other rocket scientists, cowering in the sand dunes about 20 metres away.
But lift-off proved evasive. The fuse would not ignite, fizzling out again and again.
‘‘By the time each of us had made several attempts we were fast running out of fuse,’’ Ross says. ‘‘Our supply of replacement newspaper was also limited – an unfortunate oversight.’’
It was left to Russell Beck to make one last attempt. ‘‘He may have applied an accelerant in the form of kerosene or methylated spirits to assist the process,’’ Ross says.
Doug Beck recalls the trio creating flames underneath the launch pad.
‘‘We got sticks and things and lit a fire underneath it. It was still pointing upwards, so we got this fire going and that was fine,’’ Doug Beck tells the Sunday Star-Times.
‘‘We thought we’ll just go over to the next dune and lie back in the sand and think about what we’re going to do next, and next thing there was a huge explosion.
‘‘The whole thing blew to smithereens ... we had actually built a bomb rather than a rocket.’’
After the shrapnel stopped flying, Ross looked up to see Russell Beck lying face down in the sand.
‘‘Doug and I flattened ourselves burying our faces in the sand. Somewhat deafened, we cautiously looked up horrified at what we might see. Russell was sprawled face down on the sand – motionless.
‘‘Behind him a large crater had been created in the sand with a small piece of molten metal glowing in the centre. Russell, much to our relief, staggered to his feet. Chastened, we returned to Invercargill.’’
Intrigued by the arrival of Rocket Lab, Ross emailed his old friend decades later, to ask if there was a link. They had seen each other only sporadically in adulthood, with Ross moving to London to work in the meat export industry, later at the Department of Internal Affairs, then helping set up the Lotteries Commission.
‘‘He confirmed that Peter was his son and gave me an emphatic reply that he had not attempted any more rocket launches!’’
Peter Beck tells the Star-Times his father was interested in rockets and he had heard the story of the O¯ reti River launch – though his father had ‘‘left out some of the more perilous details’’.
Doug Beck agrees that the O¯ reti River affair was the last dalliance with rockets by the brothers.
‘‘Pieces of rocket were scattered widely around the sand dune. We did gather up a number of the fragments. We took it all home. We really never pursued the rocket side again,’’ he says.
‘‘We got such a fright, honestly, if any of us were closer when it blew we wouldn’t be here today.’’
Russell Beck’s interest turned to star-gazing instead, and he built two telescopes, including a 30cm-diameter Cassegrain design at the Southland Astronomical Society Observatory.
Made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM), he was an archaeologist, museum curator and artist. He had an interest in geology, doing jade-focused research and writing five books
on the topic.
He also helped establish a restricted area in the Mount Aspiring National Park, to protect iwi access to pounamu deposits. He died in 2018.
Doug Beck, now in his 80s and retired, set up Beck Industries, which built and sold outdoor sweepers, mini motorbikes, nut harvesters and a range of engineering equipment.
While those products have sold across the country, he admits he and Russell fell short of being rocket scientists, partially hampered by the technology at the time.
‘‘Russell was more into the rocket side, I was just the younger brother that was sort of helping him,’’ Doug Beck says.
‘‘We used to make skyrockets from fireworks, that were one and six [15 cents] or something. We tried to make a three-stage unit.’’
The Becks stacked three rockets, using a Jetex fuse to release one after the other. Again, that was the theory.
‘‘We only really ever had – from memory – two successful launches. The rest either levelled off and shot straight down the street, or tipped over and came straight back down to the ground. Stage three was coming down so fast, we had to scatter.’’
Another effort failed to achieve much elevation, blazing down Park St until hitting a gate and exploding with considerable gusto and smoke.
‘‘We had quite a few exciting times. There was nothing high-tech about it at all, it was sort of trial and error. There was absolutely no electronics, all we had was fuses.’’
The brothers had more success in other forms of propelled equipment – they built a vehicle Doug still recalls fondly, though others may not. The 1954 ‘‘Snob Mobile’’ was powered by a 98cc lawn mower engine, reaching a top speed of 40kph.
‘‘We terrorised the neighbourhood in that,’’ Doug laughs.
Did the neighbours complain?
‘‘No, it was more the cops. They got us in the end, and we had to use it in Queen’s Park, where it was safer.’’
Since 2006, Peter Beck has grown Rocket Lab into a global organisation that develops and launches advanced rockets, satellites and spacecraft. In June 2022, Rocket Lab launched a miniaturised satellite to the Moon – on a pathfinding mission to support a Nasa programme that aimed to put the first woman and first person of colour on the Moon.
‘‘Doug and I flattened ourselves burying our faces in the sand. Somewhat deafened, we cautiously looked up horrified at what we might see. Russell was sprawled face down on the sand – motionless.’’ Alan Ross, right
If you’re looking for another link to his father, it could well be in sculpture: Peter Beck is not satisfied with simply building rockets and thinks they have to be beautiful. ‘‘We have a saying here, ‘we make beautiful things’ .... whether it be a rocket or spreadsheet,’’ he told the Sunday Star-Times earlier this year.
‘‘That’s one of the key elements of the success of the company and the reason why our stuff works, we take the time to make it functional, but also beautiful.’’
Doug Beck says the family are full of admiration for Peter, who is regularly in touch.
‘‘Where we slipped up, Peter has achieved it. We are pretty proud.’’ Ross sees parallels between Russell and Peter. New Zealand should be grateful for both men, he argues.
‘‘His profound interest in space provided, I believe, the genesis of his son’s great endeavours.’’
And had things taken a nasty twist alongside the O¯ reti River in the 1950s, Rocket Lab and Peter Beck might never have been born.
Now, it’s all systems go. Mission complete.