Relativity Space will try to make history with the first launch of the 110-foot-tall Terran 1 rocket Tomorrow in the afternoon. The company, which was founded in 2015 by Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone, is best known for its innovative 3D printing technology: Terran 1 is 85% mass 3D printed, and that even includes the rocket engines. The company has made big bets and has even bigger ambitions, with Relativity CEO Tim Ellis echoing SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Martian ambitions.
“Our long-term mission remains that we want to help build an industrial base on Mars and help make humanity multi-planetary,” Ellis told TechCrunch.
The company has made many headlines during its eight-year history. Here are the top 10 moments from the TC archives.
We first wrote about Relativity in 2017, when the company only had 14(!) full-time employees. We note that the company wants to cut the cost of rocket launches tenfold using its 3D printing process.
Relativity has been awarded a multi-year contract by the US Air Force to operate the rocket launch facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the same site from which Relativity expects to launch Terran 1 tomorrow. .
TC’s Darrell Etherington spoke with CEO Tim Ellis about the economics behind Relativity Space, just months after the company raised $140 million. (TC+)
Building on the momentum, Relativity announced its new dig: a massive warehouse-style building in Long Beach, California.
The company announced the massive raise in November 2020, which was followed shortly thereafter by an aggressive expansion of the workforce, facilities, and, well…everything.
Relativity finally revealed what comes after Terran 1: Terran R, a much bigger and even more ambitious 3D-printed rocket, with full reusability.
Less than a year after closing on $500 million, the company managed to raise another $650 million to scale development of the Terran R.
Relativity increased its footprint by a factor of 10 with a new 1 million square foot facility in Long Beach.
We broke the news last year that Relativity signed a big deal with British satellite constellation operator OneWeb, plus it had $1.2 billion in firm Terran R launch contracts, contracts the company managed to land before even shipping. a single rocket to orbit.
Relativity announced new plans with startup Impulse Space, founded by former SpaceX propulsion CTO, to land a spacecraft on Mars starting in 2024 (yes, you read that right).
