Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — dubbed “Secretary of War” by the Trump administration — visited the aerospace startup Rocket Lab’s offices in Long Beach Friday, as part of a national tour meant to buttress enthusiasm for the nation’s manufacturing and defense sectors.
During his visit, Hegseth toured parts of the company’s engine development complex, a 144,000-square-foot warehouse formerly used as the headquarters of Virgin Orbit.
In an address to about 200 employees, Hegseth said that companies like Rocket Lab are key in “dominating” aerospace, adding that breakthroughs in intel gathering and reconnaissance made possible missions like the U.S.’s recent capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.
Hegseth called Rocket Lab the foundation of the nation’s “defense industrial base” and the key to gaining “high ground” on the future theater of battle, in space.
“You are the engine of the new arsenal of freedom” for the U.S. to “project its will anywhere, anytime without question,” he said.
Hegseth concluded his remarks by promising a new era that rewards companies that invest in workers, expand capacity and bolster production — not stock buyback programs: “If you deliver for America, the government’s going to have your back. If you don’t, you should get in a different business.”
A “USA” chant briefly broke out among workers after he left the stage.
When asked, a spokesperson for Rocket Lab said it was the company’s role as a “leading space manufacturer serving critical national security and defense programs” that drew Hegseth to include it on the tour.
Founded in 2006 in New Zealand, Rocket Lab moved its headquarters from Huntington Beach to Long Beach in 2020. It has since amassed about 2,600 employees — 800 of whom work in Long Beach — with launch sites in New Zealand and Wallops, Va.
In December, the company was awarded a $805 million contract by the U.S. Space Force to develop 18 defense satellites meant to detect enemy missiles in low Earth orbit. Rocket Lab has launched 245 satellites, according to its website.
Engineers spent much of the day showing Hegseth around the production floor of the company’s Rutherford rocket engine — a 3D printed, battery-powered engine first launched in the smaller Electron rocket in 2017 — and the newer Archimedes, a larger, methane-powered engine designed to propel their Neutron rocket, which is scheduled for inaugural launch later this year.
These engines are a major investment for the U.S. forces, with the smaller Electron rocket being the second-most purchased behind a similar model made by rival SpaceX.
Friday marks one of the earliest stops Hegseth has made on his monthlong “Arsenal of Freedom Tour,” starting with a visit to a naval shipyard in Newport News, Va., on Monday, and a military base in El Segundo on Thursday, according to a news release from the Department of War.
At the shipyard Monday, Hegseth told a crowd of shipwrights he wants to see faster delivery and greater discipline on budgets, saying their work is critical to “usher in a new golden age of peace through strength, a revival of our industrial base, all-American, made by the best Americans.”
It also comes as President Donald Trump this week proposed a record $1.5 trillion in military spending, up from $900 billion this year.
Rep. Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, was also in attendance.