Relativity Space: General Thread

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/relativityspace/status/1580339779253587968

1st Gen ➡️ 3rd Gen Stargate metal 3D Printers.

Pioneering our way towards a multiplanetary future. 🚀 #SpacetoberChallenge

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://www.relativityspace.com/press-release/2022/10/18/new-agreement-with-nasa-puts-relativity-space-on-path-to-operate-one-of-americas-largest-rocket-engine-test-facilities

NEW AGREEMENT WITH NASA PUTS RELATIVITY SPACE ON PATH TO OPERATE ONE OF AMERICA’S LARGEST ROCKET ENGINE TEST FACILITIES
Construction is Underway on New Test Complex at NASA’s Stennis Space Center to Support Aeon R Engine Testing and Terran R Stage Testing

Bay St. Louis, Mississippi (October 18, 2022) – Relativity Space, the first company to 3D print rockets and build the largest metal 3D printers in the world, today detailed its plans to operate one of the largest rocket engine test facilities in the United States. Through an agreement with NASA, Relativity is significantly expanding its facilities and infrastructure at NASA’s historic Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi. The new facilities will support testing of Relativity’s entirely 3D printed Aeon R engines for its fully reusable 3D printed rocket, Terran R.

Relativity will utilize over 150 additional acres within the Stennis Test Complex, with testing infrastructure for its Aeon R engines being built from the ground up on previously unutilized land north of the A and E Test Complexes. Relativity has begun ground clearing work for several new engine test stands, a full scale second stage stand, office buildings, and a vehicle hangar. The company is already underway testing Aeon R components across Relativity’s E2 test complex, with plans to build the first Aeon R engine and turbopump assembly and begin thrust chamber assembly tests for its Aeon R engines in the coming months at a leased E1 test cell. Full Aeon R engine tests are tracking to occur in late 2023 at Relativity’s newly announced facility expansions.

Relativity currently occupies several operational facilities at Stennis, which include four exclusive-use test stands in the E4 area used for Terran 1 stage testing and Aeon 1 engine testing, two exclusive-use stands in the E2 area used for Aeon 1 engine and Aeon R component tests, and one cell on the E1 test stand available through a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement for Aeon R engine tests. Additionally, Relativity has expanded into several buildings that house its rapidly growing team and test control operations. These facilities have enabled more than 2,000 engine tests, multiple successful mission duty cycles, and a fully-integrated stage testing of a 3D printed orbital flight article – which is not only a first for Relativity but for the entire aerospace manufacturing industry.

Relativity’s partnership with NASA advances innovation, economic development, and job growth in the Gulf Coast, while also progressing the company’s leadership in American aerospace development. Relativity will continue to invest in regional workforce development programs, university and education outreach, and community engagement initiatives.

“We’re looking forward to writing some new history at Stennis through an incredibly large new expansion of development and test capabilities. We’re honored to partner with NASA and are grateful for their support. We look forward to growing our Stennis-based team, who will be pivotal in our success of meeting many more first-ever milestones as we scale our Terran R program.” - Relativity Space Cofounder and CEO, Tim Ellis

“The access to infrastructure in Mississippi is unparalleled. I look forward to working with NASA as the historic Stennis Space Center continues to evolve to support commercial space test programs and to attract and hire top talent as we build the future of aerospace manufacturing. We know the history of excellence at Stennis and take great pride in being able to repurpose existing infrastructure that has withstood the test of time. But we will also build brand new test stands in a place so central and vital to American aerospace innovation.”  - Relativity Space Vice President of Test and Launch, Don Kaderbek

“We welcome the growth of this valued partnership with Relativity Space,” Stennis Space Center Director Dr. Rick Gilbrech said. “NASA is committed to working with commercial companies to help them achieve their space goals, and Stennis is a proven leader in enabling such partnerships. Since their arrival in the spring of 2018, Relativity Space has continued to grow as a respected member of the Stennis federal city. We look forward to their continued development as an aerospace manufacturing and launch company.” - Stennis Space Center Director, Dr. Rick Gilbrech

“This expansion is proof that Mississippi’s future as an aerospace hub is bright. I congratulate Relativity Space on their continued growth and their effort to bring quality jobs to our state. American leadership in space starts in Mississippi, and I expect many great things to come.” - U.S. Senator, Roger Wicker (R-Miss.)

“Mississippi’s Stennis Space Center precedes its reputation for excellence in rocket engine testing, and Relativity’s growing presence will only further that reputation. I look forward to seeing what new aerospace innovations are brought about from this exciting expansion and partnership, as well as what new talent it will attract.”- U.S. Senator, Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.)

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/relativityspace/status/1582334505565638657

🚨 Stennis expansion TL;DR

✅ 150+ acres of additional land
✅ Ground clearing started for: new engine test stands, full scale 2nd stage stand, office buildings + a vehicle hangar
✅ Full Aeon R engine tests tracking for late 2023 at new facilities

[heavylift]

As usual, Relativity suggesting that the "Biggest Engine Test Site" in the US is a good thing.

Flashy, headline-grabbing, but not an intelligent use of capital. If this is the largest engine test site, that means both Rocket Lab and SpaceX are operating with smaller facilities, which begs the question - do you need a facility this large, this brand new, and this expensive for what you're doing? No, probably not.

[su27k]

Tim Ellis also made a pre-announcement announcement on twitter, which hyped up interest, but the actual news is kind of meh.

Add to that a recent article that pretends to discuss an accident from another company, but filled with praise to Relativity, making it a semi-PR piece, it looks to me Relativity is hungry for public attention for some reason.

[Hug]

Everyone is scaling their workforces right now and as a result it's a pretty fierce competition for getting them hands. I mean Blue has doubled in size in the past year and is still going. I think that's the reason they've been pushing PR so hard given that capital/stock price isn't an issue for them right now.

[edzieba]

As usual, Relativity suggesting that the "Biggest Engine Test Site" in the US is a good thing.

Flashy, headline-grabbing, but not an intelligent use of capital. If this is the largest engine test site, that means both Rocket Lab and SpaceX are operating with smaller facilities, which begs the question - do you need a facility this large, this brand new, and this expensive for what you're doing? No, probably not.

The phrase used was "one of the largest", not "the largest". The two do not mean the same thing, and this is not the largest engine test facility in the US (trivially confirmable, as it sits inside a larger engine test facility).

[heavylift]

As usual, Relativity suggesting that the "Biggest Engine Test Site" in the US is a good thing.

Flashy, headline-grabbing, but not an intelligent use of capital. If this is the largest engine test site, that means both Rocket Lab and SpaceX are operating with smaller facilities, which begs the question - do you need a facility this large, this brand new, and this expensive for what you're doing? No, probably not.

The phrase used was "one of the largest", not "the largest". The two do not mean the same thing, and this is not the largest engine test facility in the US (trivially confirmable, as it sits inside a larger engine test facility).

The detail nitpick does not change the commentary. My point is clearly conveyed, even if you chose to ignore it; the fact stands that Relativity continues to be focused, as it always has been, on very large, capital-intensive, flashy efforts than creating the a financially robust, survivable, well-considered launch business.

That doesn't make it wrong, rather it is my personal, individual criticism of them as a company. Plenty folks do the same thing, and get by with it, even becoming profitable and prosperous. For me personally, the giant long beach facility, the enormous test site, and the general stride of what Relativity does comes off as excess, overindulgence, and wasteful.

Every dollar that gets spent solving one problem is a dollar that doesn't get spent solving another problem. Companies and people who take that seriously try to solve the problem with as little as possible. If Relativity "solves" the problem of launching a 1t rocket at a total expense of, say, $500mm and another company does so for, say, $200mm - then Relativity is really just solving the problem, but in a worse way.

If you suggest they are investing in scaling while others aren't, and thus it is more capital intensive -- I challenge that as well. You can compare the size and scale of investment of their LB facility with similar efforts at others and see it is just as overzealous as anything else they've done.

Lot of "cool," much less "makes sense"

[Robotbeat]

Terran-1 is a subscale tech demo for Terran-R. Demonstrating 3D printed tanks, avionics, 9 engine clustering, and eventually Aeon-R itself (as a single engine).

IMHO, they’ll retire Terran-1 as soon as Terran-R is flying regularly. Going straight to Terran-R likely wouldn’t be advisable.

[edzieba]

As usual, Relativity suggesting that the "Biggest Engine Test Site" in the US is a good thing.

Flashy, headline-grabbing, but not an intelligent use of capital. If this is the largest engine test site, that means both Rocket Lab and SpaceX are operating with smaller facilities, which begs the question - do you need a facility this large, this brand new, and this expensive for what you're doing? No, probably not.

The phrase used was "one of the largest", not "the largest". The two do not mean the same thing, and this is not the largest engine test facility in the US (trivially confirmable, as it sits inside a larger engine test facility).

The detail nitpick does not change the commentary. My point is clearly conveyed, even if you chose to ignore it

Your 'point' was to claim that they were unnecessarily building a test facility larger than McGregor anmd therefore assume they are wasting money. Something that Relativity have not claimed to have done ('one of the largest' just means 'not small'), so a garden variety straw-man fallacy rather than a valid criticism. 

[trimeta]

As an additional point of comparison, SpaceX's McGregor facility is 4,280 acres. So acting like Relativity adding 150 acres to their test facility is a wasteful extravagance compared to SpaceX seems to be ignoring facts on the ground.

[vaporcobra]

Don't get fooled by Relativity's big show machinery. They are investing more money in producing show than any other rocket company I am aware of. And of course will find more "external factors" that cause the launch to slip.

My dude, they have a fully-tested two-stage methalox rocket that uses autogenous pressurization almost ready to go at their nearly finished launch pad. Terran 1 has more boxes checked than Starship and is maybe a few weeks behind ABL Space's RS1. Their seriousness is beyond question, even if their schedule estimates are as bad as any other rocket startup's.

[playadelmars]

Why would customers who are in the business of buying rockets sign $1.2B of launch contracts with Relativity over other companies like RocketLab and Blue Origin and ULA/Arianespace? Customers are not dumb, in fact they are probably the smartest besides the talent that actually chooses to stay employee at these companies, so I’d follow the customers, talent, then investors in that order as far as assessing legitimacy apart from direct technical sight. There is usually so much going on behind the scenes and deal making happening based on test results and assessments of performance that we mortals are never privy to, but is not a joke. $1.2B of deals, 20 launches, that’s $60m/launch so it’s not even heavily discounted. They already have factory concrete poured and building launch site at existing facility, testing engine hardware already, it’s farther along.

[Rondaz]

And yes, this was printed *horizontally* on our prototype Stargate V4 printer, announced today!

https://twitter.com/thetimellis/status/1584555195794526208

[TrevorMonty]

Why would customers who are in the business of buying rockets sign $1.2B of launch contracts with Relativity over other companies like RocketLab and Blue Origin and ULA/Arianespace? Customers are not dumb, in fact they are probably the smartest besides the talent that actually chooses to stay employee at these companies, so I’d follow the customers, talent, then investors in that order as far as assessing legitimacy apart from direct technical sight. There is usually so much going on behind the scenes and deal making happening based on test results and assessments of performance that we mortals are never privy to, but is not a joke. $1.2B of deals, 20 launches, that’s $60m/launch so it’s not even heavily discounted. They already have factory concrete poured and building launch site at existing facility, testing engine hardware already, it’s farther along.

It would be brave customer that puts a down payment on under development LV with company thats not flown a LV before.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

Crosspost:

https://twitter.com/relativityspace/status/1584526469631717377

🚨 Surprise! Meet our newest Stargate 4th Generation metal 3D printers. Bigger. Faster. Stronger. Developed in-house. Horizontal printing, ramping up the development and rate production of Terran R. 🚀  *Human for scale*

🗞️  bit.ly/3smNAFV

#TerranR #3Dprinting

https://www.relativityspace.com/press-release/2022/10/24/relativity-space-maps-path-to-terran-r-production-at-scale-with-unveil-of-stargate-4th-generation-metal-3d-printers

RELATIVITY SPACE MAPS PATH TO TERRAN R PRODUCTION AT SCALE WITH UNVEIL OF STARGATE 4TH GENERATION METAL 3D PRINTERS
Now Operating World’s Largest Metal 3D Printers at Company's 1MM+ Sq. Ft. Factory

Long Beach, CA (October 24, 2022) – Relativity Space, the first company to 3D print rockets and build the largest metal 3D printers in the world, today unveiled the latest iteration of its first-of-its-kind proprietary manufacturing platform, Stargate 4th Generation metal 3D printers. These printers will underpin both the development and rate production of Terran R, Relativity’s fully reusable, 3D printed rocket that will be capable of launching 20,000 kg to low Earth orbit (LEO).

The newest Stargate printer technology defies traditional printing constraints by moving horizontally as it feeds multiple wires into a single print head to print orbital rockets. Relativity is developing customized software and machine learning techniques to allow these printers to print more complex and significantly larger metal products, with improved print speed and reliability. Stargate 4th Generation printers also radically simplify manufacturing supply chains, as they are capable of printing a rocket with 100x fewer parts in a matter of months.

With faster iteration cycles, Stargate printers are capable of accelerating progress and innovation within the aerospace industry. Most immediately, Stargate 4th Generation printers will serve as the primary manufacturing infrastructure for Terran R production. Longer-term, Stargate 4th Generation printers offer tremendous value-generating potential for other end-product use cases within the $1T+ aerospace, aviation, energy, and defense industries as the core of a new tech stack for aerospace products. To date, Relativity has secured five customers across $1.2B+ in customer contracts for Terran R, including a multi-launch agreement with OneWeb and a commercial mission to Mars with Impulse Space.

Key features and benefits of Stargate 4th Generation printer technology: 

Significant improvements in print speed: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Generation Stargate printers already operate at print speeds well beyond industry standards. 4th Generation Stargate printers improve on their predecessors and offer 7x faster than earlier generation Stargate printers and even achieve up to 12x faster printing over Relativity’s already industry-leading performance.

Entirely new print orientation and environment:
Increased print size capacity through use of a horizontal print orientation. Stargate 4thgeneration printers remove ceiling height constraints which impact vertical 3D printers. Through horizontal printing, these printers are capable of printing objects up to 120 feet long and 24 feet wide, resulting in an increased volume capacity of 55x its 3rd generation predecessor.

Reduced print start time and cost is supported by an integrated approach to build setup and print plate preparation.

Reduced entropy, for more consistent, reliable manufacturing can be realized through a configuration which centralizes work centers around Stargate’s robotic automation platform.

Improved print quality and work center efficiency is achieved through powerful perception technology for in-process monitoring, which fuses together computer vision, advanced sensors and real-time telemetry.

Radical part count reduction as well as rapid design iterations as Stargate printers are not beholden to long-lead, high capital expenditure fixed tooling.
Lighter, more cost-effective aerospace product production through rapid iteration is generated by leveraging Stargate printers and material science advancements developed in Relativity’s in-house metallurgical laboratory. Relativity has proprietary, high-performance next generation materials which will be used for products printed with Stargate 4th Generation printers. Most immediately, Terran R will be the first product in a series of products to benefit from use of lighter materials and a faster production time, creating significant cost reductions for customers downstream.

“Large-scale products that are designed to fly will inevitably be 3D printed,” said Tim Ellis, cofounder and CEO of Relativity Space. “The lighter a product is, the better it performs, and when 3D printing that product, it’s also faster and more cost-effective to produce with each successive improvement. The compounding rate of progress is high, and we are still in the early days of what printing can achieve. We see 3D printing as an automation technology that has the power to change the pace of innovation in manufacturing, which is why we’ve invested in building our own proprietary tech stack from day one. Stargate printers are designed to unlock rapid iteration, which opens up opportunities for innovation in large-scale manufacturing products. What would take traditional aerospace and space manufacturers years to develop and build, will be reduced down to months due to a highly adaptable, scalable, and automated process, made possible through software-driven manufacturing.”

“Iteration empowers innovation not only in our rocket design, but also in our own Stargate printers,” said Scott Van Vliet, SVP of Software Engineering. “In its short history, Relativity has made great strides in evolving its core 3D printing technology, but Stargate 4th Generation printers are our most innovative leap yet. We’re fundamentally changing the way our factories are designed and operating, and by flipping the script and going horizontal, we’re radically increasing our capacity for scale. Being a software-driven manufacturing company allows us to achieve unique product features, such as integrated pad-ups and domes, with radical flexibility.”

The majority of Terran R components will be printed inside Relativity’s new 1MM+ square foot headquarters in Long Beach, named The Wormhole. Aeon R engines, for Terran R, will continue to be produced at the company’s other Long Beach factory, The Portal. The Wormhole, a former Boeing C-17 manufacturing plant, was secured by Relativity to be its new headquarters in 2021. Currently 33% operational, the factory has several Stargate 4th Generation printers online with more than a dozen printers planned to be producing Terran R components in the coming months. At full capacity forecasted run rate, each Stargate 4th Generation printer is capable of producing 4 Terran R rockets per year. The remainder of The Wormhole will continue to be built out in phases, bringing more printers online and moving more teams into the company’s headquarters as production for Terran R scales.

[FutureSpaceTourist]

https://twitter.com/joroulette/status/1584911622644064256

Relativity Space's new giant 3D printer could allow the company to build things other than the rockets it plans to launch - CEO Tim Ellis said they're working with a company to use the printer for building parts of a nuclear fusion reactor
https://www.reuters.com/technology/rocket-startup-relativity-eyes-new-products-with-enlarged-3d-printer-2022-10-24/

[ParabolicSnark]

Every now and then I'm impressed with what Relativity has done, but man this culture around their Stargate printer gets exhausting. Printing was supposed to save them work and time and what is their next generational leap in printing technology? Eliminating the constraints of roofs. 

[edzieba]

Every now and then I'm impressed with what Relativity has done, but man this culture around their Stargate printer gets exhausting. Printing was supposed to save them work and time and what is their next generational leap in printing technology? Eliminating the constraints of roofs. 

Only if you ignore the 7x-12x deposition speedup and the multi-filament feed (which would allow for dynamic alloy mixing, not just increased feedrate). Yep, totally just avoiding tall roofs, no other changes.

[Asteroza]

Every now and then I'm impressed with what Relativity has done, but man this culture around their Stargate printer gets exhausting. Printing was supposed to save them work and time and what is their next generational leap in printing technology? Eliminating the constraints of roofs. 

Eh, you can't really hate on them. They just wanted to get on the conveyor belt 3D printer bandwagon after RealSexyCyborg popularized them...