Welcome to our crib. Nearly 300 acres of Relativity at @NASAStennis. 🧵📍 A-2 Test Stand advanced vertical first stage testing for #TerranR. 🚀
📍 R Complex, A new dual-bay vertical engine test stand 🔥
📍E2 Development, qualification, and acceptance testing of our #AeonR engine components
📍E4, dual-bay test stands previously used for Terran 1 stage testing and Aeon 1 engine testing.
Brost: Terran 1 launch "made it very clear to us where 3D-printing is much better than traditional manufacturing and where it's not."
[Tory] Bruno compliments Relativity "on what you guys have done, it's absolutely amazing." Fully agree that the most complex parts that take the longest to fabricate by traditional means "are absolutely outstanding" when fabricated with 3D-printing.
💫 Unlock the capabilities of Dual Plasma with our additive manufacturing team. 🧵
💡What’s Dual Plasma? This advanced manufacturing method allows two distinct plasma sources to create precise and high-quality surface modifications on materials, enhancing their performance and functionality for various industrial applications.
💡 With Terran R nearly six times the total printed content by mass compared to Terran 1, our Stargate metal 3D printers are advancing with the early benefits of Dual Plasma 👇✔️ Enhanced control over penetration profile and melt-off rates✔️ Higher deposition rate while maintaining stability and print quality✔️ Extended run times due to minimal spatter and fume generation
🧠 Starting with a blank sheet design, we've developed in-house hardware, system configurations, and integration methods to incorporate the new tech. 🚀 https://www.relativityspace.com/careers
✍️ We’ve inked a multi-year, multi-launch agreement for #TerranR with @INTELSAT , operator of the largest integrated space and terrestrial network in the world! 🛰️Get the full scoop:
RELATIVITY SPACE AND INTELSAT SIGN MULTI-LAUNCH AGREEMENT FOR TERRAN RDeal marks the latest announcement of Relativity’s Terran R launch contracts, totaling $1.8 billion in backlog across nine customers. October 11, 2023 – Long Beach, CA and McLean, VA – Relativity Space, the preeminent 3D printed rocket company, announced today that it has signed a multi-year, multi-launch Launch Services Agreement (LSA) with Intelsat, operator of the largest integrated space and terrestrial network in the world. Under the agreement, Relativity will launch Intelsat satellites on Terran R as early as 2026. As a medium-to-heavy-lift, reusable launch vehicle made for growing satellite launch demand and eventually multiplanetary transport, Terran R provides both government and commercial customers affordable access to space, in LEO, MEO, GEO and beyond. Relativity has a total of nine signed customers for Terran R, including multiple launches and totaling more than $1.8 billion in backlog. “We are honored to be working with Intelsat to launch future spacecraft into their industry leading satellite fleet,” said Tim Ellis, Co-Founder and CEO of Relativity Space. “They have an incredible company and team as a world leader in content connectivity with nearly 60 satellites already in orbit. The space industry clearly requires more commercially competitive, diversified, and disruptive launch capacity. Relativity is developing Terran R as a customer-focused reusable launch vehicle to solve this need. We look forward to planning, executing, and successfully launching these missions together with Intelsat.” “After 60 years of commercial satellite launches, Intelsat and our customers have come to expect reliability, efficiency and flexibility from our launch providers,” said Jean-Luc Froeliger, Intelsat Senior Vice President of Space Systems. “Relativity has developed an innovative design and production process for the Terran R, which will deliver benefits to Intelsat for years to come.” Terran R was developed to accommodate the growing demand for large constellation launch services. With a payload fairing that offers the right market fit to meet a variety of needs, Terran R supports use cases from dedicated payload deployments of constellation customers or single geosynchronous satellites to rideshare configurations for multiple customers per launch. Putting customers first, Relativity is designing and manufacturing rockets that offer high performance and reliability, while costing less to produce and fly. Terran R is designed and manufactured at Relativity’s headquarters in Long Beach, CA, which is home to its fourth generation Stargate metal 3D printers. Stage and engine testing is conducted at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and Terran R will launch Intelsat missions from Space Launch Complex 16, Relativity’s orbital launch site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. For more information about Terran R, please visit: https://www.relativityspace.com/terran-r.
From a swamp to a built-up dual-bay vertical engine test stand in <12 months.✔️Test stand activation✔ First #AeonR powerpack installed🔜 Powerpack testingStarting point: October 2022👇
Early 2023 propellant farm and stand foundation begin to take shape!
By summer of 2023✔️ Water tower✔️ Propellant farm✔️ Engine stand infrastructure
✔️Flame diverter arrival and install
September 2023. The R Complex first dual-bay vertical engine test stand is ready for its first test article. Hello #AeonR powerpack.
October 2023. The stand is alive. ⚡Standard feedline flushes ensure the cleanliness and proper functioning of the feedlines that deliver propellants to various components of the test stand.
Testing out the sprinklers. 🚿 Stand testing FireX (fire extinguishing system) to ensure that we have full coverage of critical hardware in the event of a fire.
🧵800+ tests. <24 months. 2 states. Multiple test cells. Break down our 4 testing buckets with us.👇
Thrust Chamber Assembly testing @NASAStennis packs a punch at the E1 and E2 test cells, capturing data from:🔥 TCA🔥 TCA Sub-scale🔥 TCA Igniters
📍E2 test cell, The GG category (Gas Generator) data encompasses⚡ Gas Generator testing⚡ Gas Generator Igniter⚡ Heat Exchangers
📍Factory Test Yard, Long Beach, CA. Turbomachinery testing includes:⛽ Fuel Turbopump⛽ Lox Turbopump
Valve testing across Long Beach and Stennis facilities totals more than 200+ tests, covering:🔩 Main valve🔩 Throttle valve🔩 GG isolation valve🔩 Cyro iso valve
One year ago today, our 4th Generation Stargate 3D metal printers were unveiled. Introducing horizontal printing for bigger and faster prints. Each round of innovation and design built on our printer's predecessors. Take a look back at Stargate's printing evolution. 👇
Gen 1: Discovery. From an idea to reality. Exploring and developing our printing capabilities.Stargate 1st generation metal 3d printer
Gen 2: Feasibility. The realm of possibilities. Refining and enhancing our printers.Stargate 2nd generation metal 3d printer
Gen 3: Size: #Terran1 production. 🚀Stargate 3rd generation metal 3d printer
Gen 4: Size & Speed 👉 further developing our large-scale printing capabilities. Currently printing: #TerranR development domes.
Ellis said that signing these LSAs also gives a greater look into a customer’s technical plans and what their requirements are. Relativity was able to see the need for a second launch provider for all the forthcoming telecom constellations — such as OneWeb’s, a company that announced a launch agreement with Relativity in June 2022 — because it was in conversation with prospective customers, Ellis said.“There was this need and we saw that early,” he said. “Why we were able to see that early is because we were actually talking with customers, and we were actually working to sign launch deals with them.”
It doesn't seem to me like signing contracts was necessary to understand that there would be demand for a non-SpaceX launch provider among the companies directly competing with Starlink.
Quote from: trimeta on 11/29/2023 07:59 pmIt doesn't seem to me like signing contracts was necessary to understand that there would be demand for a non-SpaceX launch provider among the companies directly competing with Starlink.I don't understand. If SpaceX provides the lowest price to orbit and meets all my technical and schedule requirements, why would I pick another launch provider? They'll take my money and launch my satellites. My money is very unlikely to affect their bottom line much, because if I don't use them then someone else will.
Quote from: DanClemmensen on 11/29/2023 08:09 pmQuote from: trimeta on 11/29/2023 07:59 pmIt doesn't seem to me like signing contracts was necessary to understand that there would be demand for a non-SpaceX launch provider among the companies directly competing with Starlink.I don't understand. If SpaceX provides the lowest price to orbit and meets all my technical and schedule requirements, why would I pick another launch provider? They'll take my money and launch my satellites. My money is very unlikely to affect their bottom line much, because if I don't use them then someone else will.The number of people in this forum who argue "the world has room for exactly one launch provider, there is no need whatsoever for more than one organization to manage all of space"...maybe this is less obvious than I thought.
Quote from: DanClemmensen on 11/29/2023 08:09 pmQuote from: trimeta on 11/29/2023 07:59 pmIt doesn't seem to me like signing contracts was necessary to understand that there would be demand for a non-SpaceX launch provider among the companies directly competing with Starlink.I don't understand. If SpaceX provides the lowest price to orbit and meets all my technical and schedule requirements, why would I pick another launch provider? They'll take my money and launch my satellites. My money is very unlikely to affect their bottom line much, because if I don't use them then someone else will.This is like asking why, if Toyota makes the cheapest cars, does anyone else buy a vehicle from any other manufacturer. The price of something isn't the only consideration for most people for most products. This is also true of the rocket launch market. Sometimes cost is a minor consideration.
Quote from: whitelancer64 on 11/29/2023 09:00 pmQuote from: DanClemmensen on 11/29/2023 08:09 pmQuote from: trimeta on 11/29/2023 07:59 pmIt doesn't seem to me like signing contracts was necessary to understand that there would be demand for a non-SpaceX launch provider among the companies directly competing with Starlink.I don't understand. If SpaceX provides the lowest price to orbit and meets all my technical and schedule requirements, why would I pick another launch provider? They'll take my money and launch my satellites. My money is very unlikely to affect their bottom line much, because if I don't use them then someone else will.This is like asking why, if Toyota makes the cheapest cars, does anyone else buy a vehicle from any other manufacturer. The price of something isn't the only consideration for most people for most products. This is also true of the rocket launch market. Sometimes cost is a minor consideration.Sure, customers can have multiple metrics. I thought that these would be covered in "technical requirements" in this industry, but maybe there are others I can think of one or two, such as corporate viability and freedom from geopolitical issues. The RD-180 was the very best engine for Atlas V based on cost, schedule, and reliability, but ULA ended up in a bind because of Russian geopolitics. I'm still not seeing any metrics that are analogous to the Toyota decision.What other metrics or decision criteria do you have in mind?
Buying from multiple providers gives you better bargaining power. Basically, if Relativity’s price is $20/kg, SpaceX doesn’t get to charge $100/kg.
Sounds like a huge business risk. Seems like if you’re doing a ton of flights, it would be worth buying a few launches from all the lower cost launch providers if you can.
