Relativity Space 3D-Printed Rocket Arrives in Cape Canaveral, Targets Summer Launch
The pieces have been 3D printed and made their way across the country from California to Cape Canaveral, so now everything is in place for Relativity Space’s first launch.
The Long Beach, California-based company announced all the parts of its two-stage Terran 1 rocket made it to its warehouse near Launch Complex 16 on the Space Coast.
Relativity is calling the mission “GLHF” as in “Good Luck, Have Fun,” and it won’t be carrying any customer payloads when it launches. The target for liftoff remains this summer.
The company posted video of the two stages arriving by truck separately to the warehouse saying it was “bringing us one giant step closer to launching the world’s first entirely 3D printed rocket.”
Construction turnaround time for the Terran 1 rockets are projected to take as little as 30 days. Smaller than SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, but at 110 feet tall with a 7.5-foot-wide fairing, they are capable of sending 2,756 pounds of payload to low-Earth orbit of about 310 miles. Terran 1 is expendable, but a much larger reusable 3D rocket is in the works called Terran R.
“Terran 1 is the largest 3D printed object to exist and to attempt orbital flight,” the company states on its website. This first test rocket was 85% 3D-printed, with a goal of hitting 95% on future rockets.
It uses nine Aeon engines on its first stage with a mix of liquid oxygen and liquefied natural gas (LOX/LNG), that could become the first rocket to combine that mixture and reach orbit, although other countries and companies are pursuing that as well.
The second stage uses a single Aeon vacuum engine. The engines are 3D-printed as well.
The company’s goal is to being able to 3D print rockets off-planet such as on Mars, and those would switch to using methane as fuel.
While the first launch will be a test mission to make sure the craft can make it into orbit, Relativity has lined up eight customers, including the U.S. Department of Defense and NASA, which awarded the company $3 million as part of its Venture Class Launch Services Demonstration 2 contract.
All of Relativity’s initial launches will be from LC-16, which has not had a launch since 1988 but was used for Titan and Pershing missiles as well as test for the Apollo and Gemini programs.
The company joins SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and Astra Space, all three of which are already active from their respective Cape Canaveral launch pads while Blue Origin is expected to attempt its first launch with the New Glenn rocket by 2023.
After the stages arrived to the Space Coast, company CEO and cofounder Tim Ellis posted his excitement on Twitter saying, “Can’t wait to take you for a spin. Been waiting 6 years to say that … worth the payoff.”
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