3D-printing specialist Relativity Space is attempting its first rocket launch on Saturday, a mission that marks probably the most significant test yet of the corporate’s ambitious manufacturing approach.
The corporate’s Terran 1 rocket is launching from LC-16, a launchpad on the U.S. Space Force’s facility in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The mission is known as “Good Luck, Have Fun,” and goals to successfully reach orbit. In an try to launch at 2:42 p.m. ET, the rocket’s engines ignited but a launch abort was called with 0.5 seconds remaining before liftoff. The corporate is reassessing whether it could make one other attempt on Saturday.
Relativity has a window between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. ET to launch, or postpone because it did after an attempt earlier this week. The corporate said that a ground equipment valve malfunctioned during Wednesday’s attempt, which affected the temperature of the propellant that was being pumped into the rocket, but has since fixed the valve issue.
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While many space corporations utilize 3D printing, also often called additive manufacturing, Relativity has effectively gone all-in on the approach. The corporate believes its approach will make constructing orbital-class rockets much faster than traditional methods, requiring 1000’s less parts and enabling changes to be made via software. The Long Beach, California-based enterprise goals to create rockets from raw materials in as little as 60 days.
Terran 1 stands 110 feet high, with nine engines powering the lower first stage, and one engine powering the upper second stage. Its Aeon engines are 3D-printed, with the rocket using liquid oxygen and liquid natural gas as its two fuel types. The corporate says that 85% of this primary Terran 1 rocket was 3D-printed.
The corporate’s Terran 1 rocket stands on its launchpad at LC-16 in Cape Canaveral, Florida ahead of the inaugural launch attempt.
Trevor Mahlmann / Relativity Space
Relativity prices Terran 1 at $12 million per launch. It’s designed to hold about 1,250 kilograms to low Earth orbit. That puts Terran 1 within the “medium lift” section of the U.S. launch market, between Rocket Lab’s Electron and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 in each price and capability.
Wednesday’s debut for Terran 1 is just not carrying a payload or satellite contained in the rocket. The corporate emphasized the launch represents a prototype.
In a series of tweets before the mission, Ellis shared his expectations for the mission: He noted that reaching a milestone of maximum aerodynamic pressure about 80 seconds after liftoff could be a “key inflection” point for proving the corporate’s technology.
The outside of “The Wormhole” factory.
Relativity Space