Relativity's 3D-printed Terran rocket set for debut launch
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[March 08, 2023]
By Joey Roulette
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A 3D-printed rocket built by California-based
startup Relativity Space was due for blastoff on its first mission to
orbit on Wednesday in a key test of the company's novel strategy for
cutting manufacturing costs.
The 115-foot-tall (35-meter) Terran 1 rocket, 85% of which was
fabricated from a 3D-printer, was set to lift off from a U.S. Space
Force Base launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 1 p.m. Eastern time
(1800 GMT) on Wednesday.
"The launch that we're preparing for is an opportunity to demonstrate a
whole bunch of things all at once," said Josh Brost, Relativity's senior
vice president of revenue. He called the Terran 1 "by far the largest
3D-printed structure that's ever been assembled."
The 3D-printing process, widely used in various industries, involves
machines that autonomously "print" sequential layers of soft, liquid or
powdered materials that are quickly hardened or fused to form solid,
three-dimensional objects. Designs of the objects are scanned from
digital blueprints.
Relativity, one of a handful of U.S. rocket startups competing to sate
the growing demand for cheap launch services, has bet on the cost
savings it expects to achieve using giant, robotic 3D-printers to
simplify its rocket production lines. Most of its rivals have focused on
lowering costs by building rockets designed to be reuseable, such as the
Falcon 9 boosters produced by Elon Musk's SpaceX.
The use of 3D-printers, Brost said, allows Relativity to hasten much of
its manufacturing processes and more easily make changes to improve the
rocket's design if needed after it flies, eliminating the need for a
complex supply chain that would otherwise slow down rocket enhancements.
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While the expendable Terran 1 is built to carry 2,755 pounds (1,250
kg) of satellites to low-Earth orbit, waning demand for that class
of launch vehicle has led Relativity to develop a larger, 3D-printed
reusable rocket - the Terran R - that it expects to fly in 2024.
Currently driving demand are the so-called mega-constellation plans
by companies such as SpaceX, OneWeb and Jeff Bezos' Amazon to deploy
tens of thousands of internet-beaming satellites to low-Earth orbit
in the next few years.
SpaceX flies its own heavy-lift rockets to get its Starlink network
into orbit, while Amazon and OneWeb plan to use similar large
rockets from various launch companies for their own satellites.
OneWeb will launch its next-generation satellites on Relativity's
Terran R, the companies announced last year.
Relativity, headquartered in Long Beach, California, has roughly
$1.65 billion worth of launch contracts secured for both its
rockets, with the bulk of that revenue attributable to the larger
Terran R.
While market demand for rockets like Terran 1 has weakened, Brost
said the rocket's upcoming flights will inform how Terran R is
engineered.
Asked if Relativity is still selling Terran 1 to customers, Brost
said the company "continues to talk to people about both vehicles."
(Reporting by Joey Roulette in Washington; Editing by Steve Gorman
and Edwina Gibbs)
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