Relativity Space: General Thread

[ParabolicSnark]

Relativity Space adds $500 million to ‘war chest’ for scaling production of 3D-printed rockets
PUBLISHED MON, NOV 23 202011:00 AM EST

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/23/relativity-space-builds-war-chest-for-building-.html

Some key items here:

Regarding funding:

The company was “not initially planning to raise” new capital right now, Ellis said. Relativity still has the majority of its funding from the $140 million it raised in October 2019, which funded the company’s Terran 1 rocket development through its first launch – a fact Ellis emphasized remains true today.

Ellis also said that taking Relativity public through a SPAC deal was “certainly a possibility,” but staying private “was the preferred direction by a longshot.”

Current staffing:

The company has continued to hire quickly this year, Ellis noted, and now has more than 230 employees.

Using a rule-of-thumb of $150/hour/head (this is a first order estimate for compensation, overhead, and hardware), this would put them at a $72m/year burn rate. With that burn rate (plus assumed growth), I'd expect them to start running dry around Q3-Q4 2021 without this Series D round. Given where they're at in their development, I suspect they're further than that for first launch and they actually did need this funding round more than they care to admit.

There's also a gif of the factor floor showing what looks like a tank for structural testing (equipped with strain gages on bottom right) and a second tank that appears to be predominately a display piece (used in the cover shot with Ellis in an empty factory).

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Our Director of Structures & Mechanisms, David Lemire, leads Relativity's world-class team of engineers to design, build, analyze, and test all of our primary and secondary structures for our launch vehicle. Here at Relativity, we are revolutionizing tank design with our 3D printing technology and factory of the future. Take an inside look at how Relativity is disrupting over 60 years of aerospace manufacturing!

0:00 - Intro
0:18 - Learn about our additive process & manufacturing
0:46 - The advantages of an entirely 3D printing tank design & structures
1:36 - Sneak peek of Relativity's factory of the future!

-----------------
Subscribe to our channel for the latest behind-the-scenes on Relativity: https://www.youtube.com/c/RelativityS...

For more updates, visit our website: https://www.relativityspace.com/press

[playadelmars]

The high valuation must be from a huge backlog of customer agreements with reputable, established companies? Other than Iridium, Telesat, Lockheed, NASA, added a new mission to their manifest.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethhowell1/2020/12/10/3d-rocket-from-relativity-space-secures-dedicated-rideshare-mission-for-2022/?sh=4b51194b34ce

[trimeta]

The high valuation must be from a huge backlog of customer agreements with reputable, established companies? Other than Iridium, Telesat, Lockheed, NASA, added a new mission to their manifest.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethhowell1/2020/12/10/3d-rocket-from-relativity-space-secures-dedicated-rideshare-mission-for-2022/?sh=4b51194b34ce

Realistically, the high valuation is from investors who think "even if they fail to make it in the competitive small-launch market, they're poised to be a leader in aerospace-grade 3D printing, which is a substantially larger market." Of course, there are many in this thread who think that their 3D printing technology isn't very impressive either.

[john smith 19]

The high valuation must be from a huge backlog of customer agreements with reputable, established companies? Other than Iridium, Telesat, Lockheed, NASA, added a new mission to their manifest.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/elizabethhowell1/2020/12/10/3d-rocket-from-relativity-space-secures-dedicated-rideshare-mission-for-2022/?sh=4b51194b34ce

Realistically, the high valuation is from investors who think "even if they fail to make it in the competitive small-launch market, they're poised to be a leader in aerospace-grade 3D printing, which is a substantially larger market." Of course, there are many in this thread who think that their 3D printing technology isn't very impressive either.

As always it's a question of how much of the company did the investors get for $500m?

On paper this is yet another TSTO ELV.  And it hasn't launched yet.

[yg1968]

NASA Awards Venture Class Launch Services Demonstration 2 Contract

-Relativity Space Inc. of Long Beach, California: $3.0 million

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-awards-venture-class-launch-services-demonstration-2-contract

[PM3]

-Relativity Space Inc. of Long Beach, California: $3.0 million

Stunning price tag. That's less than an Electron and even less than Astra, which charges $ 3.9 M to NASA. (Firefly gets $ 9,8 M).

This could explain why Relativity has been collecting so many launch contracts so early. They seem to be confident that robotic manufacturing will produce very cheap rockets.

[trimeta]

-Relativity Space Inc. of Long Beach, California: $3.0 million

Stunning price tag. That's less than an Electron and even less than Astra, which charges $ 3.9 M to NASA. (Firefly gets $ 9,8 M).

This could explain why Relativity has been collecting so many launch contracts so early. They seem to be confident that robotic manufacturing will produce very cheap rockets.

That said, Firefly's award is also under their nominal dedicated mission price of $15 million. So maybe NASA got a discount off the "normal" launch prices for committing in advance of the vehicles actually flying.

[su27k]

Or more likely they plan to get their money back by flying other non-NASA secondary payloads. The primary mission is just putting 30 to 95kg to 500 to 550km orbit, well below the capability of these 1 ton class smallsat launchers.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

NASA has selected Relativity Space to place CubeSats into low Earth orbit as part of its Venture Class Launch Services Demonstration 2 (VCLS Demo 2) contract. This marks the second publicly announced U.S. Government launch contract for Relativity for launch services. The launch will take place by June 30, 2022 from Relativity’s orbital launch site at Cape Canaveral LC-16.

Under this award, Relativity will demonstrate its unique capabilities and sector-leading momentum by launching Terran 1, the first entirely 3D printed rocket. NASA's efforts to expand launch options are vital for the future growth of space access. Additionally, small satellites and CubeSat missions are increasingly critical to humanity's multiplanetary research, technology and innovation.

For more information and updates, visit our website: https://www.relativityspace.com/updates

[trimeta]

Based on the recently-released Source Selection Statement for the VCLS Demo 2 contract, Relativity applied for (and won) a Mission 1 contract, for a dedicated CubeSat launch to put 30 kg worth of payload in a 500 km orbit. Rather than a Mission 2 contract, which requires being a primary payload and putting 95 kg worth of payloads into two different 550 km orbits with a plane change in between. I find this odd, given the Terran 1's nominal capabilities (900 kg to 500 km SSO).

I guess one confusion is what a "dedicated launch service for CubeSats" means for Mission 1. Can Relativity Space deploy 90U worth of CubeSats, only 1/3 of which come under the VCLS Demo 2 contract, and still satisfy Mission 1? The Mission 2 phrasing of "Primary Payload" implies that secondary payloads are permitted, but can other payloads go on a Mission 1 launch?

And if the main difficulty of Mission 2 is the requirement for an inclination change, what does that tell us about the Terran 1's capabilities?

[ncb1397]

And if the main difficulty of Mission 2 is the requirement for an inclination change, what does that tell us about the Terran 1's capabilities?

The inclination change is super expensive. Up to 1400 m/s for the minimum 10 degree plane change. The combination of polar orbit and minimum 10 degree plane/inclination change puts the difficulty more in line with reaching GTO, which these small launchers typically don't do without a third stage. Speaking of third stage, Firefly does talk about what they are calling a Space Utility Vehicle that uses solar electric propulsion to reach locations that the launch vehicle typically couldn't reach. I linked how it is configured below and it does seem to fit this mission relatively well. I haven't seen anything similar from Relativity yet.

[TrevorMonty]

Based on the recently-released Source Selection Statement for the VCLS Demo 2 contract, Relativity applied for (and won) a Mission 1 contract, for a dedicated CubeSat launch to put 30 kg worth of payload in a 500 km orbit. Rather than a Mission 2 contract, which requires being a primary payload and putting 95 kg worth of payloads into two different 550 km orbits with a plane change in between. I find this odd, given the Terran 1's nominal capabilities (900 kg to 500 km SSO).

I guess one confusion is what a "dedicated launch service for CubeSats" means for Mission 1. Can Relativity Space deploy 90U worth of CubeSats, only 1/3 of which come under the VCLS Demo 2 contract, and still satisfy Mission 1? The Mission 2 phrasing of "Primary Payload" implies that secondary payloads are permitted, but can other payloads go on a Mission 1 launch?

And if the main difficulty of Mission 2 is the requirement for an inclination change, what does that tell us about the Terran 1's capabilities?

Depends if their 2nd stage supports engine restart to enable orbit changes. Boiloff becomes if issue if its a few hours between orbit changes.

Relativity and its competitors in 1000kg class will mainly do rideshares to maximise their extra performance, which means they really do need kickstage/spacetug. There is option of using 3rd party tug eg Momentus or Spaceflight but then launch company misses out on that extra revenue. Firefly plan to offer a SEP tug.

RL decided to keep 2nd stage simple and use long life Photon kick stage for it orbit changes.

Edit.
Plus side of 3rd party tugs is Relativity can concentrate on getting their 2stage LV operational before developing a tug.

[trimeta]

Depends if their 2nd stage supports engine restart to enable orbit changes. Boiloff becomes if issue if its a few hours between orbit changes.

Relativity explicitly says that their second-stage Aeon Vac engine is "Restart Capable" on their current rocket description, but you may have a point about boiloff limiting the magnitude of the changes they can make with that.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1347307344741298178

Another day, another rocket factory visit:

Thank you to Relativity VP David Giger and SVP Zach Dunn for the tour of their “factory of the future!”

The enormous Stargate 3D-printer high bays have to be seen to be believed.

[harrystranger]

I thought I'd share an update on Relativity's progress at SLC-16 using imagery from Sentinel-2.

The first attachment is the latest image taken @ 2021-01-20 16:05:29 UTC.
The second attachment is a gif that shows the progress made so far this year.

If my eye is correct I believe that they may be preparing the area to the south of the pad for construction of their HIF.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/relativityspace/status/1352342386060505088

We’re keeping the momentum strong in #2021 with hotfire testing of our development second stage!
 
Up next: Fully-integrated stage testing of the orbital flight article, to kick off later this year! #RelativitySpace #Aerospace #Propulsion #Manufacturing

[playadelmars]

Behind-the-scenes video showing multiple of the larger printers, turbopump engine tests, and rockets in manufacture. A lot to get done this year still it seems but sounds like good progress.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jf9PGYVBoZc&feature=youtu.be

[harrystranger]

Some imagery of SLC-16 taken on 2020-12-11 from Google Earth Pro.

[vaporcobra]

The anniversary video also included a rare view of LC-16 from the ground!