Tim Ellis is an American aerospace engineer and the co-founder and CEO of Relativity Space.

Early life and education

Ellis grew up in Plano, Texas. He is the oldest of three children. Ellis started college at the University of Southern California, where he planned to graduate and be a screenwriter, and study as part of USC’s Thematic Option program. However, during his freshman orientation he switched his major to

aerospace engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

. Ellis and Relativity's other co-founder and CTO, Jordan Noone, both held leadership positions at USC's Rocket Propulsion Lab. With the Rocket Propulsion Lab, Ellis and Noone helped launch the first student-designed and built rocket into space. While at the University of Southern California, Ellis had three consecutive internships with

Blue Origin Blue Origin, LLC is an American private spaceflight, privately funded aerospace manufacturer and sub-orbital spaceflight services company headquartered in Kent, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder and executive chairman of Am ...

. Ellis holds a BS and a MS in Aerospace Engineering from USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Career

Blue Origin

After graduation, Ellis joined Blue Origin full time where he worked on 3D printed rocket components and served as a propulsion development engineer on crew capsule RCS thrusters, BE-4, and

New Glenn New Glenn is a heavy-lift orbital launch vehicle in development by Blue Origin. Named after NASA astronaut John Glenn, design work on the vehicle began in 2012. Illustrations of the vehicle, and the high-level specifications, were initially ...

. At Blue Origin, Ellis was credited for bringing metal 3D-printing in-house.

Relativity Space

In 2015, Ellis co-founded Relativity Space with his former classmate, Jordan Noone, with the mission of being the first company to launch a fully 3D printed rocket into orbit. Ellis and Noone received their initial $500,000 in funding from cold emailing Mark Cuban. In April 2018, Cuban told the '' Los Angeles Times'' over email that he invested in Relativity because, "They are smart, innovative, focused and always learning." Ellis and Noone were also part of Y Combinator in their 2016 cohort. Relativity Space announced its US$650 million Series E funding at US$4.2 billion valuation in June 2021.

Other activities

Ellis is the youngest member of the National Space Council User Advisory Group by nearly two decades.

Recognitions

Ellis was included on the 2019 '' TIME'' 100 Next List, under the Phenoms section. Former NASA astronaut, Terry W. Virts, wrote the TIME excerpt on why Ellis was chosen. In 2019, Ellis was included on '' MIT Technology Review'' Innovators Under 35 issue. He was placed in the Entrepreneurs category. Ellis was recognized by '' Forbes'' in two of their 30 Under 30 lists in 2019 - the Manufacturing and Industry list and the Big Money list. Ellis was nominated by Via Satellite for their Satellite Executive of the Year 2019 award. In 2018, Ellis was included on ''Inc.'''s Rising Stars list of Most Inspiring Young Entrepreneurs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Tim American aerospace engineers Living people People from Plano, Texas USC Viterbi School of Engineering alumni American chief executives American company founders 1990 births