Livestreaming Now: 'Relativity Space' Tries to Launch Its 3D-Printed Rocket

It's the largest 3D printed object ever to exist. And they're trying to launch it into space.

Livestreaming now on YouTube: the launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida of a 110-foot rocket (33.5 meters) on a mission they're calling GLHF — 'Good Luck, Have Fun'.

Its makers — a California-based company called Relativity Space — are calling it 'the world's first 3D printed rocket.' A full 85% of the rocket's weight comes from 3D printed parts, explains Wired, and 'only the computing system, electronics, and readily available parts like fasteners were not.' Named Terran 1, the 7.5-foot-wide rocket (2.2 meters) inaugurates the company's ambitious plans for 3D printing in space:

Relativity Space wants to use Terran 1 to (comparatively) cheaply lift satellites for other companies and NASA into Earth orbit. It also plans to construct Terran R, a larger, more powerful, fully reusable rocket that the company hopes will compete with SpaceX's Falcon 9, which has a smaller payload capacity and only reuses the rocket's first stage. In late 2024, Relativity plans to test using Terran R to launch payloads to Mars; another startup, Impulse Space, will provide the lander.

From the company's web site:
Like its structure, all Relativity engines are 3D printed and use liquid oxygen and liquid natural gas, which are not only the best for rocket propulsion, but also for reusability, and the easiest to eventually transition to methane on Mars.

The tagline for the company's Twitter feed says they're 'Building humanityâ(TM)s multiplanetary future.' And excitement is running high, reports Spaceflight Now'
'There are a number of firsts here potentially on this rocket,' said Josh Brost, vice president of revenue operations at Relativity Space....
'Hard to believe the day is nearly here to launch Terran 1, our first rocket!' Tim Ellis, co-founder and CEO of Relativity Space tweeted Tuesday....
The company now boasts some 1,000 employees, a million-square-foot headquarters and factory in Long Beach, California, and $1.3 billion in venture capital and equity fundraising, including an early $500,000 investment from billionaire Mark Cuban. In 2021, the company reached a valuation of $4.2 billion before launching any rockets....

'No new company has ever had their liquid rocket make it to space on their first attempt,' Brost, also a former engineer and manager at SpaceX, told Spaceflight Now in a pre-launch interview. 'So if everything goes incredibly well, and we achieve orbit on our first launch... that would be a remarkable milestone for us, which we would be, of course, over the moon excited about. But that doesn't define success for us.'


Wired adds that they're not the only company working on space-related 3D printing:
Australia's Fleet Space has already been producing lightweight, 3D-printed radio frequency antennas for satellites. Next year, using printers half the size of a bus, they plan to create a satellite constellation called Alpha that will be entirely 3D-printed.... Flavia Tata Nardini, the company's CEO, believes space-based 3D printing is coming next. 'In my ideal future, in 10 to 15 years, I won't have to launch satellites from here; I can build them up there.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.