Why Relativity Space is next-level SpaceX, according to CEO Tim Ellis

Move over, Elon Musk. Relativity Space CEO Tim Ellis on becoming the next great commercial space-launch company.

Imagine waking up one morning and telling your parents you will one day launch the future of humanity in space. Which is perhaps what Elon Musk might have done at some point. And though Musk is currently out there on his own launching rockets for NASA, booking space tourists like Yusaku Maezawa, and thinking about Martian terraforming and beyond, there’s a new kid in the cosmos and his name’s Tim Ellis, CEO of Relativity Space. 

Part-backed by Horizon Ventures, the private investment arm of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, Relativity may yet become the next great commercial space-launch company. As space rapidly fills with infrastructure, demand for such service is outpacing supply. But, where Musk has championed and pioneered the notion
of reusable rockets, thus lowering the astronomical costs of space launches and Travel, Ellis has gone further. 

The rockets that Long Beach, California- based Relativity Space sends up to the ‘black bespoke’ of Space are next-level. Well, 3D-printed level, that is. And bespoke, or customised. 3D printing reduces complexity in terms of manufacture, speeds its way to market faster, and offers customers an any-size-meets-all-capacities capability at the right cost. Disrupting 60 years of aerospace, Relativity offers a simplified supply chain and can build and print a rocket using its own proprietary 3D printing process and exotic materials, with around 1,000 parts (a conventional space rocket ordinarily features 100,000), and do it all in less than 60 days (versus 18 months for a conventional one). It’s a giant leap of technological breakthrough that opens new dimensions for space exploration and scientific research. 

In March 2023, Relativity launched Terran 1, the world’s largest 3D printed object, into space. Or to be more specific, it became the first methane-fuelled rocket in the West to reach space, past the 100 km Karman Line. Having broken such barriers, Relativity is building on the success of the Terran 1 and is developing Terran R, a medium-to-heavy lift reusable rocket. Terran R will offer customers a point-to-point launch vehicle capable of missions from Earth to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. 

Just last month on September 12, Relativity had put Terran R through its paces at NASA’s STennis Space Centre, America’s Largest Rocket Engine Test Complex, in Hancock, Mississippi. 

Meantime, in a universe comparatively close by, India’s ISRO Vikram Lander (part of the Chandrayaan mission), has discovered after landing on the south pole of the Moon, that it may be more habitable than was thought, and temperatures more amenable to sustaining human life. 

“Customers are telling us there is just not enough launch supply or launch capacity, period, in the world up to 2027, or 2028,” says Ellis. “And the only company that I think can fill it besides Relativity would be SpaceX.” And its Falcon 9. But SpaceX is developing its own satellite constellation, Starlink, so there’s something of a coNFLict of interest.

Sensing the booming market for such service, the sector, while still niche, is getting busier. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin has been developing New Glenn, a heavy-lift rocket, and Boeing/Lockheed Martin’s United Launch Alliance is working on a heavy-lift rocket too. Ellis, who has worked for both Nasa and on 3D-printing projects at Blue Origin, says Relativity already has several billion dollars’ worth of deals mapped out, with around 80 to 90 percent commercial and the rest, governmental contracts. It signed a multi-year, multi-launch agreement last June to send OneWeb broadband satellites to space. Today, Relativity is valued at US$4.2 billion by investors. 

To date, along with Li Ka-shing, the company’s backers include BlackRock, Fidelity billionaire Mark Cuban, and Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto. “We’re focused on building the industrial base
on Mars, so that’s really the way that 3D printing will eventually go. Three- dimensional printing is just a digital manufacturing Technology that takes all of the human labour, all the complex parts, and puts them into a more software and data-driven form, which AI actually can interface with a lot better,” says Ellis. “You need a factory that’s lightweight, that can build a wide range of products with very little human involvement and labour.” 

And if you think Mars sounds like a pipe dream, Relativity has already announced a first commercial mission to Mars with Impulse Space, led by SpaceX founding member, Tom Mueller last year. Through the deal, Impulse, which has already developed products for companies like SpaceX, NASA, General Electric and Virgin, will use Relativity’s 3D-printed Terran R to deliver its Mars Cruise Vehicle and Mars Lander to the planet’s surface for research and development needed to build towards humanity’s multi-planetary future. The image of Matt Damon getting down to some serious shit – in fact, his own – with which he cultivated potatoes on the Red Planet in The Martian, may not be as farfetched as it seems. 

“We believe building a multi-planetary future on Mars is only possible if we inspire dozens to hundreds of companies to work toward a singular goal,” says Ellis. “This is a monumental challenge, but one that will expand the possibilities for human experience in our lifetime across two planets. With the delivery capabilities of Terran R coupled with Impulse’s in-space transportation, we are bringing humanity one step closer to making Mars a reality. The collaboration of our two low-cost commercial providers will establish and expand our presence on the planet.” No shit required.