A 3D-printed rocket was successfully launched, but it missed its target

The First Launch of Relativity Space: Tim Ellis and the Rocket onboard a Launch Vehicle for Heavy-Ion Colliders

The next rocket that Relativity Space makes will be able to carry more weight and will use more 3D-printed materials.

Terran 1 is a vehicle designed to haul lightweight satellites into space and it lifted off from Florida at 11:30 pm. A bright blue green, which was created by the rocket’s gases, came up against the night sky.

After the first stage of the rocket — the bottommost portion of the rocket that gives the initial thrust at liftoff — expended its fuel, it detached from the rocket’s upper stage. The engine meant to propel that portion appeared to only ignite once, leaving the rocket without enough power to make it to its intended destination.

The rocket successful liftoff, completion of Stage 1 separation and meeting Max Q as planned. Terran 1 fell premature in Stage 2 because the engine seemed to lose its spark.

Before Wednesday’s event, Relativity cofounder and CEO Tim Ellis had noted in a March 7 Twitter post that he hoped to see the company’s Terran 1 rocket notch a success on its first launch attempt.

“Of course, the rocket-loving engineer in me wants to see us be the first privately-funded AND first liquid-propellant rocket to ever reach orbit on the first try. That would not happen in my lifetime.

But Ellis acknowledged that even watching the rocket clear the launchpad would be a cause for celebration, and that getting the rocket through Max Q — the moment it endures the maximum amount of pressure during flight, about 80 seconds after liftoff — would be a “key inflection” point.

3D printing as a new approach to manufacturing rocket engines: The case for a medium-heavy lift rocket from Relativity Space

“I started my career as a propulsion engineer working for Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin, where I designed and developed rocket engines starting from a blank sheet of paper,” Ellis told CNN’s Kristin Fisher in an interview earlier this month. I did the first metal 3D printing at Blue Origin. … I realized that instead of printing just bits and parts of a rocket, that 3D printing was really a completely new approach to manufacture.”

The company has a factory in Long Beach, California. Massive 3D-printing machines are tucked behind hangar doors and slowly pour metal to form the hulking parts of a rocket’s main body.

The startup has over $1 billion in launch contracts on their books. The majority of those deals for the larger rocket are for Terran R. Terran R is still in the early stages of development.

The company envisions using the more compact Terran 1 rocket primarily for deploying small satellites that are part of larger constellations, which can require maintenance for technology upgrades or replacement of malfunctioning satellites.

The larger Terran R rocket is expected to have the capacity to launch around 44,000 pounds, which is 16 times more mass than what Terran 1 can manage. That puts Terran R in the “medium-heavy lift” class, which is the same category as the Falcon 9 rockets launched by SpaceX, the most prolific private launch company.

“Medium-heavy lift is clearly where the biggest market opportunity is for the remaining decade, with a massive launch shortage in this payload class underway,” Ellis wrote on Twitter.

Relativity Space is trying to cash in on the booming satellite industry — a hot market right now, thanks to companies that are sending thousands of satellites into orbit to blanket the globe with internet access. Relativity says it’s already secured $1.7 billion in customer contracts.

In February 2022, Ellis told CNN he envisions the 3D printers that is developing could be a game-changing technology for manufacturing in many industries, including aircrafts, oil and gas refineries, wind turbines, and more.

The Terran Launch Mission: A Triumphant First Flight with a Large New Type of High-Redshift Telescope, and the First Flight Over an Iron-Rich Burst

The plan was to have Terran 1 plunge back through the atmosphere after a few days in a 125 mile-high (200 kilometer) circle.

The company said Wednesday’s liftoff was still a “huge win, with many historic firsts,” and that it would sift through the flight data to determine what went wrong.

“The 3D printing technology allows us to test and modify the design quickly, with fewer limitations on factory tooling and traditional manufacturing techniques,” he said.

The commercial share of the market has surpassed the growth of military satellites, so they have become the driving force for launch, according to the director of research at Quilty Analytics.

It’s the third launch attempt for the rocket, whose mission has been dubbed GLHF, short for “Good Luck, Have Fun.” The launch of Terran was aborted at the last minute due to a problem with the upper section of the rocket. Weather and technical reasons caused a second attempt to be scrubbed.