![]() ![]() ![]() If you want to do slight tweaks and changes, you've got to rip out all of that and go all over again." "Every aerospace factory you walk into today is still building products with giant fixed tooling and a very complex supply chain and it takes many years to develop a new product. "It's a completely different technology stack for aerospace," Ellis added. Aeon timeline competitors software#"The printers, straight up with software changes, will build Terran R," Ellis said. Relativity's focus on 3D printing means the company doesn't have to change or add new equipment to its production line. "We will be able to print far more exotic and traditionally difficult-to-manufacture materials that make both first- and second-stage reusability much better," Ellis said. But SpaceX does not recover Falcon 9's second stages – a feat Relativity aims to pull off by 3D printing designs which "wouldn't be possible with traditional manufacturing," Ellis said. He highlighted SpaceX's work on reusability as informing Relativity's approach to Terran R, which he expects will be "fully reusable." SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets are partially reusable, in that the company lands the first stage (also known as the booster) and often recovers the rocket's nosecone. "I just don't see a future where a fully reusable rocket doesn't exist and doesn't need to exist," Ellis said. "Almost every model we've looked at, there need to be more launch vehicles to deploy even a fraction of the plans that people are talking about."Įllis also touted Terran R's reusability as further enhancing Relativity's competitiveness. "There's actually going to be a launch shortage, if you look at how many people are trying to launch payloads to space," Ellis said. Not only does Relativity's CEO expect to be competitive in the marketplace, but he also believes there will be more spacecraft trying to launch than there are rides to orbit. "There are tons of customers, all getting funding and developing big plans, and that's really driving the need for more launch capacity globally," Ellis said. He noted that the Terran 1 contracts that Relativity has announced to date have binding launch service agreements, so customers are paying on deposits for the rockets. Relativity has a pipeline worth several billion dollars of contracts "in active dialogue" for both its Terran 1 and Terran R rockets, Ellis said, with customer interest split evenly between the two vehicles. "We really were asked by the market to create and we're currently talking with customers," Ellis said. SpaceX advertises Falcon 9 rocket launches with a $62 million price tag, with Musk's company saying each rocket costs about $28 million to launch. While Ellis declined to disclose what price per launch Relativity expects for Terran R, he said that Relativity plans to be competitive with other offerings. That would be near the 22,800 kilograms that SpaceX says its Falcon 9 rockets can launch. launch market, in between Rocket Lab's Electron and SpaceX's Falcon 9 in both price and capability.Įllis said Terran R will be capable of lifting nearly 20 times as much payload as Terran 1, with Relativity targeting a rocket capable of launching more than 20,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit. That puts Terran 1 in the middle of the U.S. Terran 1 is priced at $12 million per launch and is designed to carry 1,250 kilograms to low Earth orbit. ![]() Terran R represents an expansion of Relativity's offerings in the launch marketplace. ![]()
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