Relativity Space makes significant progress on Terran R; flight hardware in production

Date:
Tue, 11 Mar 2025 13:58:54 +0000

Description:
Relativity Space has announced significant progress with their Terran R reusable launch vehicle. In a The post Relativity Space makes significant progress on Terran R; flight hardware in production appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .

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Relativity Space has announced significant progress with their Terran R reusable launch vehicle. In a newly released video, the company says they are set to have the vehicles primary structure completed this year, with a full vehicle assembled for launch in 2026.

Terran R is also anticipating reuse early in the program, with the first launch targeting a soft splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean of the first stage, followed by a landing on a floating barge on later flights. This all comes with an eventual goal of achieving 50 to 100 flights annually.



This progress comes as the company encounters a change in leadership. Relativity co-founder Tim Ellis announced he will now serve as a board member as Eric Schmidt becomes the companys new CEO. In a statement on X, Ellis says Schmidt will also provide substantial financial backing.

The Terran R vehicle, which has only been under active development for the last year and a half, is currently undergoing critical design reviews.



[That] doesnt mean the whole vehicle is designed, but were about 50 percent
of the way through critical design reviews, Relativity Space CTO Kevin Wu said. Its actually the vast majority of the committed mass of the vehicle.
The remaining work that we have is mostly secondary structures and commercial off-the-shelf.

As of February 2025, more than 160 critical design reviews have been
completed and over 50% of the vehicles mass has been released. That includes all 13 of the first stage Aeon R engines, six flight domes actively
undergoing drilling and operations, and all second stage barrels that have moved into tank assembly.

Terran R is a shift from the companys first rocket, Terran 1. That vehicle
was 85% built using wire arc additive design, which is very similar to 3D printing but with metallic alloys. While Terran 1 did not make it to orbit, Relativity Space notes it succeeded in reaching space proving several of Relativitys unique manufacturing processes. Terran R is a mixture of additive design and spot-welding. Terran-1 launches on its first flight in 2023. (Credit: Relativity Space)

Were not dogmatic about how anything should be made or the history of the company or anything like that, Wu said. Were just dogmatic about fielding a great product. Our manufacturing methods are a trade like anything else on
the vehicle, and its really important to understand the pros, cons, and risks of every trade.

This included the decision to outsource certain parts of the process that previously would have been done in-house.

So when we look at a manufacturing method that could be as impactful as how were making the barrels or the domes or the fairings, it really comes down to a balanced approach between engineering, supply chain, manufacturing, and the global business.

Smart decision-making is optimizing for the entire business, not just
focusing energy in one particular area that we may optimize locally.

An external company has partnered with Relativity Space to provide the domes after attempting to print their own in-house. As a result, the domes for Terran-R are more traditional aluminum lithium alloy domes, like those Wu had seen while working at SpaceX developing Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. Completed dome sections for Terran R inside the companys Long Beach, California, facility. (Credit: Relativity Space)

In fact, Senior Vice President of Manufacturing and Supply Chain Zack Rubin pointed out that switching to manufactured parts as opposed to printed parts does not mean that additive manufacturing is going away.

We have gotten farther in 3D printing because we invested in those domes and were using that 3D printing technology elsewhere, Rubin said. Were still
using additive manufacturing on Terran R in areas where it really helps us. Things were looking at are areas that help us get to the market faster and develop, build, and test faster. See Also Terran R Updates Commercial Space Forum Section L2 Future Vehicles Section Click here to Join L2

A similar decision was made to outsource the manufacturing of the payload fairing, as Relativity found that it was more beneficial to not focus all of their factory efforts on that design, especially given the companys goal to launch quickly and reliably. The company is also bringing in pre-manufactured composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPV).

The move to pre-manufactured parts doesnt mean all of Terran Rs
infrastructure is being outsourced. Many parts are being built and designed
in Relativitys Long Beach, California, headquarters.

We will see the entire factory, every single work center, become alive, Rubin said. We will see hardware flow from one work center to the other. Well lean on our digital systems, our enterprise systems. This is truly the first year were going to have a fully functioning factory for Terran R.

One of Terran Rs key manufactured parts is its engines. The first stage of Terran R uses 13 Aeon R engines, with a singular vacuum-optimized Aeon R engine for the second stage. Both engines utilize heritage engineering from Terran 1, which used Aeon 1 engines.

Its the same cycle, a gas generator, and uses the same propellants, liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquified natural gas (LNG), Vice President of Propulsion James Harris said. Aeon R is a much larger engine with much higher thrust,
and also requires us to have throttle and mixture ratio control in order to meet the mission of the Terran R vehicle. Today marks a bold new chapter for @relativityspace read below:

Some dreams are so audacious theyre worth dedicating significant years of
your life to. Nine years ago, we scribbled Relativitys wild vision on the
back of a Starbucks receipt, never imagining how many pic.twitter.com/ARkJJ0fFGJ

Tim Ellis (@thetimellis) March 10, 2025



Aeon R can produce around 270,000 pounds of thrust (lbf) at sea level. The single vacuum-optimized variant on the second stage can produce 323,000 lbf. The vehicles propellants are densified, meaning they are chilled to increase the amount of propellants stored in same-sized tanks.

With high-pressure nitrogen supplementing, the engine uses gaseous hydrogen and oxygen to jumpstart the gas generator ignition. Of the first stage engines, nine of the 13 will be gimballed.

As with all development processes, Aeon R has been through different iterations. The third iteration is currently being used for flight testing, with the fourth iteration expected to fly on the first flight. This is where Relativitys additive manufacturing plays a vital role in vehicle development progress.



By leveraging additive [manufacturing], were able to quickly make changes to key components like the combustion chamber, the injector, and the pump, learn from tests, and deploy a new design rinse and repeat, Harris said.

The engines are tested at NASAs Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, Mississippi. The design philosophy of Relativity Space is to expect failures along the way, but only in the right settings.

Theres an industry term called test like you fly, which Ive always thought is a little backwards, Vice President of Test and Launch Clay Walker said. It actually should be you fly like you test it. When you test the rocket, youre bounding what you know the rocket is capable of doing reliably. I know the rocket will light at this temperature, I know the rocket will fly at this pressure. Im confident the systems work there.

Then you should baseline what you think the flight profile will stress the rocket to and then test to a larger window than that to ensure that youre not doing anything for the first time when you release the rocket for flight. Avionics, flight software, and GNC are hitting key development milestones.

Completed multiple iterations of advanced flight simulations from liftoff to landing to orbit Developed algorithms for engine control, mid-flight
guidance, day-of-launch trajectory design, and pic.twitter.com/nuwbIGCdVE

Relativity Space (@relativityspace) March 10, 2025



However, the first Terran R flight vehicle is planning to test various reusability aspects for the first time. Four landing legs are located inside the engine fairings of the four fixed Aeon R engines, with a sliding track
for the upper strut. Terran Rs first flight will launch from Launch Complex
16 (LC-16) at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and end with
a soft splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. Relativitys ultimate goal is to land the first stage on a barge, similar to the droneships SpaceX employs for its Falcon booster landings.

Also similar to Falcon, Terran R will go through different variations over
the years, known as blocks.

I think coming out of the block one campaign, well want to have recovered and fully inspected and potentially retested a first stage that weve recovered, Vice President of Integrated Performance Ryan Kraft said. Were really not leaning on true reusability for the first block of the vehicle. The first block of the vehicle, I really view as more of an engineering steppingstone
to get to the full reusability of the first stage.

Block two will focus more on reusability than entry, descent, and landing. Block three is expected to ramp up Terran Rs launch cadence to 50 to 100 launches per year. Work continues on pad modifications for Terran R at LC-16. (Credit: Relativity Space)

Relativitys focus on launching satellite constellations is responsible for this high launch cadence. Their primary customer is a company planning to launch thousands of satellites, each of which will mass anywhere from 500 kg to 1.5 tonnes.

Terran-R has been designed to carry 20,000 kg to low-Earth orbit, Chief Revenue Officer Josh Brost said. Thats really what weve identified as the sweet spot within the constellation market. Its large enough to provide great economics on a dollar-per-satellite basis but small enough to ensure that
were able to fill it full with each launch.

Thus far, Relativity Space has created a $2.9 billion backlog thats been signed.

What were seeing today is demand that is growing faster than any one supplier can possibly serve, Brost said. In addition, were also hearing from customers a very strong desire to ensure that they have multiple options to get to space.

(Lead image: Artists impression of the Terran R launching from LC-16.
Credit: Relativity Space)



The post Relativity Space makes significant progress on Terran R; flight hardware in production appeared first on NASASpaceFlight.com .



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Link to news story:
https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/03/terran-r-update/


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