3D printing rocket startup Relativity Space has a total financing of more than 1.2 billion U.S. dollars. Recently, the company announced the construction of a new 1 million square foot (over 90,000 square meters) super factory in Long Beach, California, which is scheduled to be completed and settled in January 2022.
A review of the five-year development history © Relativity Space
Increase efficiency exponentially
Relativity Space is the first company to 3D print the entire rocket and manufacture the world’s largest metal 3D printer. The new Relativity Space headquarters is one of the largest in the commercial space industry. Relativity Space headquarters will have more than 2,000 employees, metallurgical laboratories, DMLS printers, mission control centers, and dozens of company-specific Stargate 3D printers.
© Relativity Space
© Relativity Space
© Relativity Space
© Relativity Space
This is the largest metal 3D printer in the world. Through software changes, Relativity’s Stargate printer can print the world’s first fully 3D printed launch vehicle Terran 1 and its fully reusable, fully 3D printed launch vehicle Terran R.
© Relativity Space
Relativity Space currently has more than 450 employees, which has grown by 300% in the past year, spread across Long Beach, Vandenberg, Seattle, Washington, DC, Stanislas and Cape Canaveral. The company is expected to hire more than 200 employees before the end of the year.
Converged artificial intelligence
As it expands, Relativity is doubling down on its investment in the factory of the future. The new factory is centered on Stargate, the world’s largest 3D printer created within the company. Through human-machine collaboration, Relativity’s super factory integrates 3D printing, artificial intelligence and autonomous robotics technology. Subverting the aerospace industry for 60 years, Relativity has radically simplified the supply chain, allowing the company to print its rockets in less than 60 days in an innovative way that is 100 times reduced. Combined with artificial intelligence-driven control, Relativity’s Stargate 3D printers continuously optimize production, thereby exponentially improving product quality and shortening production time, reducing costs, and achieving product designs that cannot be achieved by traditional aerospace manufacturing.
The super factory reimagined for the future of aerospace is exciting. As a vertically integrated technology platform, Relativity is at the forefront of the inevitable shift to software-defined manufacturing. Through the integration of 3D printing, artificial intelligence and autonomous robotics technology, the new super factory will be the factory of the future.
Print complete rocket in 60 days © Relativity Space
Fully reusable
Terran 1 and Terran R are different in very significant respects: the former is consumable and the latter is reusable; the former is designed for small payloads, and the latter is designed for large payloads. Even Terran R’s payload fairing is reusable, and Relativity has designed a system that, when connected to the second stage, can be recycled more easily.
Relativity Space’s Terran R rocket is 216 feet tall and has a maximum payload capacity of 20,000 pounds (by comparison, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is approximately 230 feet tall and has a maximum payload of 22,800 pounds.)
Terran R will use seven new Aeon R engines in the first stage, each capable of generating 302,000 pounds of thrust. The engines and rockets used in the production of Terran R are identical to those of Terran 1. These 3D printers currently also produce the nine Aeon 1 engines that power Terran 1, which means Relativity does not have to completely reconfigure its production line to make new launch vehicles.
According to 3D Science Valley, it takes about 60 days to build a Terran R rocket. For a rocket with this payload capability, this is an incredible speed. Relativity Space stated that the company will launch Terran R rockets from its launch site in Cape Canaveral as early as 2024 and signed the first major customer.
The Terran 1 rocket will perform the company’s first orbital flight at the end of 2021 and will not carry any payload. The second launch of Terran 1 is scheduled to take place in June 2022 and will bring the CubeSat to space as part of NASA’s Risk-Level Launch Service Demonstration 2 (VCLS Demonstration 2) contract.
(Editor in charge: admin)
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