Relativity Space is an American

aerospace manufacturing An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology industry. ...

company headquartered in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. It was founded in 2015 by Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone. Relativity Space is developing manufacturing technologies,

launch vehicle A launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a rocket designed to carry a payload (spacecraft or satellites) from the Earth's surface to outer space. Most launch vehicles operate from a launch pad, launch pads, supported by a missile launch contro ...

s and

rocket engine A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accordanc ...

s for commercial orbital launch services.

History

Relativity Space was founded in 2015 by CEO Tim Ellis and CTO Jordan Noone on the idea that existing

NewSpace Private spaceflight is spaceflight or the development of spaceflight technology that is conducted and paid for by an entity other than a government agency. In the early decades of the Space Age, the government space agencies of the Soviet Uni ...

companies were not tapping enough into the potential of

additive manufacturing 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...

(3D printing). Relativity is aiming to be the first company to successfully launch a fully 3D-printed

into orbit. In November 2020, Relativity Space announced its

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

500 million

Series D A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the ...

funding at a calculated US$2.3 billion valuation. In June 2021 Relativity announced another

650 million funding round led by

Fidelity Investments Fidelity Investments, commonly referred to as Fidelity, earlier as Fidelity Management & Research or FMR, is an American multinational financial services corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in 1946 and is on ...

at a valuation of

4.2 billion, bringing its total funding to US$1.335 billion. The funding will help the development of a fully reusable medium lift launch vehicle, the Terran R, targeting the first orbital launch not earlier than 2024. Relativity Space has investors including Baillie Gifford, Blackrock, BOND, Coatue, Fidelity, General Catalyst, ICONIQ Capital, K5 Global, Mark Cuban, Playground Global, Social Capital, Tiger Global, Tribe Capital, Y Combinator, etc. In June 2022, it was reported that Relativity Space will be sending OneWeb’s second-gen broadband satellites to orbit in 2025. The mission will be completed using the Terran R, which marked a total value of binding launch deals for that rocket to over $1.2 billion despite the company having yet to have launched their first rocket. The company had anticipated it would launch its first rocket, named Terran 1, in October 2022.

Facilities

Headquarters

Relativity Space announced a new

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

headquarters and factory in February 2020. , the new headquarters is planned to house both business operations and Relativity's

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ow ...

development operations that the company plans to build into a modern rocket manufacturing factory in the coming years. According to an interview with CEO Tim Ellis in early 2020, the factory is planned to have no fixed

tooling Tooling may refer to: * Machine tools and the tooling, such as cutting tools, fixtures, and accessories, that is used on them ** Cutting tool (machining), any of hundreds of kinds of cutters ** Fixture (tool), a fixed workholding or support devic ...

, which is hoped to allow it to be rapidly reconfigured and autonomous. A new 93,000-square-metre (1,000,000 sq ft) factory was announced in June 2021, with Relativity set to takeover the former Boeing C-17 production plant in January 2022 to begin production of its Terran R reusable launch vehicle.

Stennis Space Center

Stennis test complexes on display (SSC-2009-02208)

In March 2018, Relativity Space signed a 20-year lease at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

rocket testing facility, to test engine components and eventually full-scale test their Aeon 1 rocket engines. And in June 2019, Relativity Space expanded their work with the Stennis Space Center to include exclusive use of within Building 9101. In mid-2019, Relativity Space planned to create 200 jobs and invest US$59 million in Mississippi over the course of this nine-year lease, which carries an option to extend for another 10 years.

Cape Canaveral LC-16

In January 2019, Relativity Space announced that it won a competitive bidding process with the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

to build and operate Launch Complex 16 (LC-16) at

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) is an installation of the United States Space Force's Space Launch Delta 45, located on Cape Canaveral in Brevard County, Florida. Headquartered at the nearby Patrick Space Force Base, the station ...

in Florida. LC-16 has historical significance having been previously used by the

US military The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six Military branch, service branches: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States N ...

to launch Titan and Pershing ballistic missiles.

Vandenberg Space Force Base Building 330

In June 2020, Relativity Space announced it plans to develop a second launch pad at

Vandenberg Space Force Base Vandenberg Space Force Base , previously Vandenberg Air Force Base, is a United States Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California. Established in 1941, Vandenberg Space Force Base is a space launch base, launching spacecraft from th ...

in California to launch payloads into

polar orbit A polar orbit is one in which a satellite passes above or nearly above both poles of the body being orbited (usually a planet such as the Earth, but possibly another body such as the Moon or Sun) on each revolution. It has an inclination of about ...

s and

Sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

s, including the

Iridium Iridium is a chemical element with the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. A very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, it is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density of ...

satellite launches, between 2023 and 2030.

Products

Launch vehicles

Terran 1

Terran 1 is an

expendable launch vehicle An expendable launch system (or expendable launch vehicle/ELV) is a launch vehicle that can be launched only once, after which its components are either destroyed during reentry or discarded in space. ELVs typically consist of several rocket st ...

under development that will consist of two stages. The first stage uses nine Aeon 1 engines, while the second stage uses a single vacuum-optimized Aeon 1 engine. The maximum payload was expected to be to

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, with an altitude never mor ...

(LEO), normal payload to

(SSO), high-altitude payload to SSO. Relativity's advertised launch price was US$12 million per Terran 1 mission in June 2020. Relativity hopes to conduct the first launch of Terran 1 in December 2022.

Terran R

Terran R is a medium-lift two-stage, fully

reusable launch vehicle A reusable launch vehicle have parts that can be recovered and reflown, while carrying payloads from the surface to outer space. Rocket stages are the most common launch vehicle parts aimed for reuse. Smaller parts such as rocket engines and boos ...

planned by Relativity Space. Compared to the smaller, expendable Terran 1, it is constructed using the same 3D printing technologies, but is substantially larger, with a maximum payload capacity of to

. The first stage will use seven Aeon R engines, whilst the second stage will use an upgraded Aeon 1 engine with a copper chamber. With this design, Relativity is aiming to exceed the Falcon 9 payload to low-Earth orbit by approximately 20 percent, with a target payload mass of approximately .

Rocket engines

Aeon 1

The Aeon 1 rocket engine is designed to produce at

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

and in a vacuum. The engine is powered by

liquid natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the vol ...

(LNG) and

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an applica ...

(LOX). It is made out of a proprietary 3D-printed

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...

. It is printed by

selective laser sintering Selective laser sintering (SLS) is an additive manufacturing (AM) technique that uses a laser as the power and heat source to sinter powdered material (typically nylon or polyamide), aiming the laser automatically at points in space defined b ...

and assembled from fewer than 100 parts. By February 2022, Relativity Space had completed 500+ test firings of its Aeon 1 engine, using the E-3 test facility at NASA's Stennis Space Center.

Aeon R

The Aeon R engine is under development to produce over 250,000 pounds-force (1,100 kN) of thrust. A single Aeon R will power a future upgrade of Terran 1, and eight or more Aeon R engines are planned to power the first stage of Terran R.

Stargate

In order to

3D print 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...

large components such as rocket tanks and airframes, Relativity Space has created a system named Stargate, which it claims is the world's largest 3D printer of metals. Stargate uses existing welding technology to melt metal wire, layer by layer, into precise and complex structures that have minimal joints and parts. The company aims at 3D-printing at least 95% of their launcher, including the engines, by the end of 2020. The company plans to eventually 3D-print a complete launch vehicle within 60 days.

Launch contracts

, Relativity Space has pre-sold more launches than any other company in the private space industry since

SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...

. On 5 April 2019, Relativity Space announced its first signed contract, with

Telesat Telesat, formerly Telesat Canada, is a Canadian satellite communications company founded on May 2, 1969. The company is headquartered in Ottawa. History Telesat began as Telesat Canada, a Canadian Crown corporation created by an Act of Parli ...

, a Canadian telecom satellite operator. The terms of this contract were not specified, but it did include "multiple" launches of Terran 1. Relativity Space publicly announced their contract with

mu Space mu Space and Advanced Technology Co., Ltd., operating under the name mu Space Corp, is an aerospace manufacturer and satellite internet service provider in Southeast Asia and was founded by James Yenbamroong in 2017. History In December 2017, ...

in April 2019. It is expected that Relativity Space will launch a mu Space satellite to low Earth orbit in the second half of 2022, aboard Relativity's Terran 1 rocket. In May 2019, Relativity Space signed a contract with

Spaceflight Industries Spaceflight Industries, Inc. is an American private aerospace company based out of Herndon, Virginia that specializes in geospatial intelligence services. It sold its satellite rideshare business, Spaceflight, Inc., in June 2020. Spaceflight ...

, a satellite rideshare and mission management provider, to launch Spaceflight's dedicated smallsat rideshares. The terms of this deal were not disclosed, however, it was shared that the contract included one launch of Relativity's Terran 1 rocket in the third quarter of 2021, with an option for an unspecified number of additional launches. In September 2019, Relativity Space and Momentus Space announced their launch service agreement at the 2019 World Satellite Business Week in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. The agreement stated that Relativity's Terran 1 launch vehicles will carry Momentus' Vigoride

space tug ''Space Tug'' is a young adult science fiction novel by author Murray Leinster. It was published in 1953 by Shasta Publishers in an edition of 5,000 copies. It is the second novel in the author's Joe Kenmore series. Groff Conklin gave it a mixe ...

service vehicles into orbit. The contract is for one launch, with an option for five additional missions. In June 2020, Relativity Space announced that they signed a new launch contract with

. This contract included up to six dedicated launches to deploy ground spare satellites to

(LEO) for Iridium NEXT's constellation on Relativity's Terran 1 vehicle. According to Suzi McBride, Iridium's COO, the satellite communication provider chose to partner with Relativity Space because of their flexible launch capability and the company's ability to launch one satellite at a time. According to the deal these launches will not begin earlier than 2023.

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

announced on 16 October 2020, that it will launch a

cryogenic In physics, cryogenics is the production and behaviour of materials at very low temperatures. The 13th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration (held in Washington DC in 1971) endorsed a universal definition of “cryogenics” and “cr ...

liquid hydrogen management demonstration mission on Terran 1. Lockheed Martin also specified that the launch will make use of Momentus' Vigoride orbital transfer vehicle to house the cryogenic payload. This announcement came two days after NASA announced the recipients of its Tipping Point awards.

OneWeb OneWeb (legally Network Access Associates Ltd) is a communications company that aims to build broadband satellite Internet services. The company is headquartered in London, and has offices in Virginia, US and a satellite manufacturing facility ...

announced on 30 June 2022 that it signed the first contract for Terran R launches, with a value of over $1.2 billion for more than 20 launches starting in 2025.

References

External links

* {{Portal bar, Spaceflight, Los Angeles, Companies Aerospace companies of the United States Private spaceflight companies Rocket engine manufacturers of the United States Spacecraft manufacturers Manufacturing companies based in Greater Los Angeles Technology companies based in Greater Los Angeles Companies based in Los Angeles County, California Manufacturing companies established in 2015 Technology companies established in 2015 2015 establishments in California