Relativity Space: General Thread

[gongora]

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190214005025/en/Relativity-Granted-Industry-First-Machine-Learning-3D-Metal

Relativity Granted Industry-First Machine Learning 3D Metal Printing Patent and Adds Senior Leaders from SpaceX and Virgin Orbit to Executive Team
Patent issued for real-time adaptive control of additive manufacturing processes using machine learning

February 14, 2019 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Relativity, the world’s first autonomous rocket factory and launch services leader, today announced the appointment of three aerospace veterans to its executive team and an industry-leading new patent grant for its autonomous 3D printing technology. The fast-growing company has now hired twelve former senior leaders from SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Orbit, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Waymo, Zoox, and Tesla, and has secured a key patent for 3D printing metal using machine learning.

Tim Buzza, recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts in rocket development, as well as among the first leaders and a twelve-year executive at SpaceX, and former Co-President and Vice President of Launch at Virgin Orbit, officially joins Relativity as Distinguished Engineer after serving as an Advisor to the company. Josh Brost, a nine year veteran at SpaceX responsible for securing $3 billion in contracts with the U.S. Government and commercial entities, joins as Vice President, Government Business Development. David Giger, a thirteen-year SpaceX veteran who directed engineering, program, and leadership responsibilities for over 200 engineers in the design, testing and build of the multi-billion dollar Cargo Dragon and Crew Dragon spacecraft programs, joins as Vice President, Launch Vehicle Development for Relativity’s Terran 1 rocket.

“Our progress towards launching the first 3D printed rocket is fueled by a deeply experienced team that has built and scaled other space companies, and Tim, Josh, and David are renowned leaders in their fields,” said Tim Ellis, CEO of Relativity. “These executive appointments, combined with our recent patent grant, are great indicators of Relativity’s market momentum.”

Relativity was recently granted US. Patent Number US20180341248A1, Real-time adaptive control of additive manufacturing processes using machine learning, for its groundbreaking 3D metal printing technology using advanced sensors and control software. Disrupting 50 years of aerospace technology, Relativity is the first and only aerospace factory to use a proprietary and patented autonomous 3D printing technology, machine learning, and software to optimize every aspect of the rocket manufacturing process.

“The grant of this patent is a recognition of how our autonomous 3D metal printing technology can quickly and iteratively optimize rocket production on Earth and other planets, and is a pivotal step towards our technology differentiation and leadership in the market,” said Jordan Noone, CTO of Relativity.

Relativity can print its next-generation Terran 1 rocket in less than 60 days, while traditional rockets take 18 months or more. Terran 1 is the world’s first completely 3D printed rocket, with 100x fewer parts than traditional rockets, vastly better manufacturing reliability, rapid build time, and faster time to launch.

Relativity is on track to conduct its first full orbital launch by the end of 2020, and continues to grow a global customer manifest of both commercial and government payloads. The company recently became the first venture-backed company to secure a launch site Right of Entry at Cape Canaveral from the U.S. Air Force, adding to its portfolio of major government partnerships including a 20-year exclusive-use CSLA agreement at the NASA Stennis Space Center E4 test complex, and a NASA ACO test award. The company is expanding its infrastructure this year with a fourfold expansion to over 240,000 square feet of operations, production, testing, and launch facilities. Relativity’s team has grown almost 5x since March, from 14 to 64 full time employees in under a year.

[playadelmars]

https://qz.com/1550356/3d-printed-rockets-are-winning-over-spacex-veterans/

Certainly seem to be hiring well

[catdlr]

https://qz.com/1550356/3d-printed-rockets-are-winning-over-spacex-veterans/

Certainly seem to be hiring well

https://www.relativityspace.com/careers

[Tywin]

Somebody know how much money have put already Mark Cuban in Relativity?

[playadelmars]

This article also says they have a total of 4 Stargate printers now, they are being stealthy about it but I’d bet we start to see more stage structures from them soon.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/17/relativity-space-rocket-development-more-3d-printers-spacex-leaders.html

[ringsider]

"At this point our team is just ridiculously legendary," Relativity CEO Tim Ellis told CNBC. "These are literally the best people in the industry, period."

Pride, falls, hubris etc.

[PM3]

Telesat has contracted some launches or launch options with Relativity for their new constellation, NET 2021. No information about how many and under what conditions, but still - good news. First customer for Terran 1.

Original report by Fortune: Rocket Startup Relativity Space Announces First Major Launch Client

Terran 1 remains on schedule for a first orbital launch “at the very end of 2020"

[Edit] Eric Berger has extracted some additional information from Tim Ellis:

Relativity Space announces first launch contract, and it’s a big one

Ellis claims there are more "binding contracts", not yet announced.

[playadelmars]

This is pretty amazing that an established operator with as much credibility as Telesat is taking a bet on a fully 3D printed rocket startup. The article states this is the only time a major global operator (key: not a startup. Telesat is a public company) has signed with an all-venture funded company, and it sounds like a real deal not just LOI.

Certainly a large vote of confidence in where the Relativity team is heading, I’m sure the new hires and launch site announcements have helped. Now to just actually make the entire thing work...

[TrevorMonty]

This is pretty amazing that an established operator with as much credibility as Telesat is taking a bet on a fully 3D printed rocket startup. The article states this is the only time a major global operator (key: not a startup. Telesat is a public company) has signed with an all-venture funded company, and it sounds like a real deal not just LOI.

Certainly a large vote of confidence in where the Relativity team is heading, I’m sure the new hires and launch site announcements have helped. Now to just actually make the entire thing work...

Not a big risk for Telesat, they will have other options in same LV class once Firefly's Alpha and Boeing Phantom Express (XS-1) start flying in a next year or two.

[PM3]

Things get rolling. Relativity announces their second contract. This time no renowned customer, but a Thai start-up (which also has a launch contract for a New Glenn).

Relativity’s 3D Printed Terran 1 Rocket to Launch mu Space’s Low Earth Orbit Satellite

Expect more to come. A year ago, Ellis said said that they are competing on commercial and government launch contracts worth $1 billion.

[TrevorMonty]

Things get rolling. Relativity announces their second contract. This time no renowned customer, but a Thai start-up (which also has a launch contract for a New Glenn).

Relativity’s 3D Printed Terran 1 Rocket to Launch mu Space’s Low Earth Orbit Satellite

Expect more to come. A year ago, Ellis said said that they are competing on commercial and government launch contracts worth $1 billion.

Relativity keep pushing how big cost saving their 3D printed LVs will be compared to competition. The competition are all using 3D printed engines and some form of automated manufacturing of tanks. Final assembly of LV is still going be labour intensive for each company. All small LV providerd are talking about lead times from booking to launching of months if not weeks, once up and running fully. Even SpaceX and ULA can offer lead times in months now.

Usual overheads of launch facilities, ground stations, payload integration and general business overheads are same.  Some have traded fix launch pads for mobile ones or airlaunch, with pros and cons. Time will see which is best system.

[novak]

Relativity keep pushing how big cost saving their 3D printed LVs will be compared to competition.

I think there's more to gain from minimizing development cost and time.  Relativity thinks they are doing this because they 3D print everything, I'd favor companies with the simplest engineering problems to solve.  Rocket Lab made a good (though perhaps risky- somewhat novel) move with the electric pumps to simplify their engine cycle but many of the in development small launcher newspace companies have either rather more complex cycles (how many companies even use GGs?), air launch, pressure fed vehicles, hybrids, etc.

[john smith 19]

Relativity keep pushing how big cost saving their 3D printed LVs will be compared to competition.

I think there's more to gain from minimizing development cost and time. 

Indeed.  RL focused their improvements in areas that gave them an edge.

The trouble it a lot of these companies seem to be saying "We'll be the next SpaceX," but only doing the F1.

Does the world need yet another TSTO ELV?

[JEF_300]

Does the world need yet another TSTO ELV?

I can answer that question, just give me 5-10 years to get back to you.

Seriously though, I think that there is probably plenty of value to minimizing production expenses. After all, PSLV and Soyuz have managed to stay competitive largely by having cheaper labor costs. I think there's a lot of potential in this approach... probably.

[playadelmars]

My hunch is it’s likely they scale up after Terran 1... the iteration speed and lack of tooling with a fully 3D printed approach would greatly enable it. They have said before in talks at conferences that they believe in reusability too, and in the future with a larger rocket it just makes sense to pursue that route. Whether having SpaceX, Blue Origin, and all the legacy players allows a new competitor starting this far behind remains to be seen, 3D printing speed does help when starting from scratch tho and is a disruptive technology.

[TrevorMonty]

Relativity keep pushing how big cost saving their 3D printed LVs will be compared to competition.

I think there's more to gain from minimizing development cost and time. 

Indeed.  RL focused their improvements in areas that gave them an edge.

The trouble it a lot of these companies seem to be saying "We'll be the next SpaceX," but only doing the F1.

Does the world need yet another TSTO ELV?

Their 1,250kg Terran1 is actually very good size for smallsat market. Big enough for deploying 2-4 smallsats for replacements in large constellations, enabling BLEO missions for smallsats in conjunction with a earth departure stage eg Momentus Aerospace Vigoride Extended. Ideal for small ride share missions , as Spaceflight Industries have discovered with SSO mission trying organise 60 different payloads for F9 was a headache.

When comes to RLVs and ELVs, 1-2000kg is probably the boundary where RLVs become viable.

[playadelmars]

Now announced an LSA with Spaceflight Industries. That is 3 major customers announced just this month.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/06/tech/rocket-startup-launch-contract-relativity-space/index.html

[catdlr]

These Engineers Want to 3D Print an Entire Rocket in 60 Days

Seeker
Published on May 19, 2019

This team of engineers is using one of the world's largest 3D metal printers to build rockets, and it could shake up the space industry as we know it.

Relativity Space reveals its ambitions with big NASA deal

“Relativity announced Wednesday that it has signed a 20-year partnership with NASA's Stennis Space Center for an exclusive lease of the 25-acre E4 Test Complex in Southern Mississippi. The four test stands on the site will allow Relativity to develop and test enough engines to build 36 rockets a year, and the agreement includes an option for the company to eventually expand its footprint at the site to 250 acres.”

[JEF_300]

These Engineers Want to 3D Print an Entire Rocket in 60 Days

Seeker
Published on May 19, 2019

This team of engineers is using one of the world's largest 3D metal printers to build rockets, and it could shake up the space industry as we know it.

Relativity Space reveals its ambitions with big NASA deal

“Relativity announced Wednesday that it has signed a 20-year partnership with NASA's Stennis Space Center for an exclusive lease of the 25-acre E4 Test Complex in Southern Mississippi. The four test stands on the site will allow Relativity to develop and test enough engines to build 36 rockets a year, and the agreement includes an option for the company to eventually expand its footprint at the site to 250 acres.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5mhUm6NzqE?t=001

My only reaction to this thus far is- uh, wow.
36 rockets a year? Terran has 9 engines in the first stage, right? And then there's one on the second stage. That's 30 engine's tested per month, and of course by the same token, 3 rockets per month. Apparently, Relativity feels the need to prepare for being very popular.

[Steven Pietrobon]

Vehicle is 2.1 m diameter, 32.0 m tall and has a lift-off mass of 54.4 t.