Relativity Space aborts chance for first-ever launch of 3D-printed rocket

Relativity Space came within 70 seconds of its first launch attempt of the 3D-printed Terran 1 on Wednesday, but an automated abort put plans on hold and teams will have to wait for its next shot.

“All parties, we are scrubbing operations for the day,” said launch director Clay Walker. “Thanks for playing.”

The Long Beach, California-based startup company looks to join the ranks of SpaceX and United Launch Alliance offering launch services from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with a liftoff from Launch Complex 16.

The company had been gunning for a 2:40 p.m. liftoff, but the clock held with just over a minute to go when automated systems found the temperature for the rocket’s second-stage cryogenic liquid oxygen propellant was higher than allowed, the company stated.

Initially, the teams were looking to try for one more shot before the end of the three-hour launch window at 3:45 but called off that attempt with less than 30 minutes to go not being able to overcome the propellant temperature issue.

After the scrub, the company posted to Twitter “the team is working diligently toward our next launch window in the coming days,” but Thursday already has a SpaceX launch lined up with a planned 2:13 p.m. liftoff from a neighboring Canaveral launch pad.

Late Wednesday, the company said it would try again during a 1-4 p.m. window Saturday. Space Launch Delta 45’s weather squadron forecasts a 90% chance of good weather conditions for that attempt.

Ellis later tweeted, “nobody likes warm LOx…” with an image of a bagel and lox on the edge of a trash can.

Terran 1, which is about 85% 3D-printed, is a smaller rocket compared with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 or ULA’s Atlas rockets, standing at just 110 feet tall. The first stage uses nine Aeon 1 engines with the second stage using a single Aeon vacuum engine. It’s capable of sending 2,756 pounds of payload to low-Earth orbit of about 310 miles.

The small satellite market is its target customer.

This is a test flight dubbed “GLHF,” as in “Good Luck, Have Fun,” carrying a symbolic 3D-printed metal object that was one of the company’s first-ever 3D-printed items from the first generation of its Stargate metal 3D printers.

The fuel for Terran 1 is liquid oxygen and refined liquid natural gas close to methane, a combination dubbed “methalox” that has yet to power an orbital rocket. SpaceX’s new Starship, ULA’s upcoming Vulcan and Blue Origin’s in-development New Glenn also will use the mixture. China has also tried, but failed, to send up a rocket using this next-generation fuel. Relativity could be the first.

Since there’s no traditional customer, the target orbit altitude is lower than normal, only 125-130 miles high.

Relativity, which was founded in 2016, has a contract with the Space Force to use Launch Complex 16, which is about halfway up the row of launch sites along Cape Canaveral, with the ULA and SpaceX facilities to the north.

It is within view of the launch site to the south that sent John Glenn into space as the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962.

LC-16 was used from 1959 to 1988, the home to 150 launches, among them Titan and Pershing rockets as well as tests for the Apollo program.

The Canaveral launch follows on the heels of small rocket company Astra Space that made two launch attempts in 2022 at nearby Space Launch Complex 46 to the south, although both of those launches ended up in failure and that company has shelved that rocket for a new design. Other small rocket companies have had varying degrees of success such as Rocket Lab now launching from both New Zealand and Virginia.

Relativity, though, hopes to buck the trend of initial launches not achieving orbit.

“The launch of Terran 1 is a historic moment for our company. An entirely new approach to manufacturing was created to get our 3D printed rocket to the launch pad this week. So, what does a win look like?” the company posted to its Twitter account this week. “If we make it even further in flight to stage separation, we’ll have achieved a full first stage flight. That’s another big accomplishment for the team. From there, we will attempt to light the second stage and get Terran 1 to orbit. … Just because it hasn’t been done this way before, doesn’t mean it can’t be.”

Even if it doesn’t hit orbit, the company is already surging forward with work on a bigger rocket called the Terran R, which would be 95% 3D-printed, have a reusable first stage and could compete with the likes of SpaceX and ULA.

“I care less about competition, more about cooperation and inspiring dozens to hundreds of other companies to make [Mars and Earth] multiplanetary society happen in our immediate lifetime,” company co-founder and CEO Tim Ellis posted this month on Twitter.

The company’s logo itself represents Earth and Mars slowly separating, connected at first, but then standing on their own.

The company has plans for at least one more announced Terran 1 launch if the GLHF missions goes well, a mission to deliver a small NASA satellite to orbit next, under a $3 million contract it won in 2020 alongside Astra Space and Firefly Space. No launch date has been set for that mission, though.

They have also said Terran 1 has multiple commercial customers lined up, but company officials in the last year have touted more plans to push forward with Terran R.

“This is a technology demonstrator, and really a pathfinder for us to help us develop the idea of reusability right off the get-go with Terran R,” said Patrick Svatek, Relativity’s Cape operations and launch site director on a tour last fall.

The Terran R could be flying as early as 2024. It is already contracted to work with company Impulse Space to send what could be the first commercial payload to Mars. Relativity also last year announced a deal to use Terran R for launch services for satellite company OneWeb beginning in 2025, among a dozen customers that have signed on for around $1.65 billion in Terran R launch contracts to date.

“We are still in the early innings of a 9-inning ballgame,” Ellis said. :This launch won’t singularly define our long-term success. … This launch will, however, provide us with useful data and insights that will make us better prepared for our next at-bat.”

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