{"id":14502,"date":"2019-06-27T13:55:11","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T13:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/?p=14502"},"modified":"2024-02-21T09:34:22","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T08:34:22","slug":"relativity-robotic-3d-printing-rocket-fcatory-270620195","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/relativity-robotic-3d-printing-rocket-fcatory-270620195\/","title":{"rendered":"Relativity takes over NASA facility to set up 3D printing rocket factory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Relativity, the world\u2019s first autonomous rocket factory and launch services leader announced at the beginning of June that it secured an agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The company will install part of its production at one of NASA\u2019s site to benefit from more than 20,000 square meters to launch its rockets into space by the end of 2020. Above all, this merger will enable Relativity to accelerate the development of its rockets and gain flexibility in its manufacturing process. This is good news for the aerospace sector and confirms that additive manufacturing<\/a> has more than ever a card to play.<\/p>\n

3Dnatives interviewed the startup<\/a> last year and we discovered a company full of ambition. Thanks to its metal 3D printing system and various investments that now amount for $45 million, the startup is right to be ambitious. The company states that more than 95%<\/strong> of the rocket components are designed using 3D printing technologies and that it should be able to design an entire rocket in only 60<\/strong> days. It is now located in a former NASA building in New Orleans and benefits from numerous infrastructures that should boost its productivity, such as overhead cranes. Relativity is expected to install its robotic arms and test center for the Terran 1 rocket there.<\/p>\n

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The first tests for the Terran 1 | Credits: Relativity<\/p><\/div>\n

With this new printing center, Relativity should be able to accelerate the creation of its rockets. As a reminder, the Californian company had succeeded in reducing by 100 the number of components required to manufacture a rocket using their Stargate robotic arm. Tobi Duschl, Vice President of Relativity Operations added, \u201cThe agreement with NASA will accelerate our development. This large space will allow 12 to 24 Terran rockets to be produced each year, with more flexibility and a shorter launch time<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>

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Moreover, this is good news for the employment sector as well. Relativity has committed to creating 200 jobs and investing $59 million in the state of Mississippi. Another significant advantage is that the site is close to where Relativity conducts its propulsion tests (about 5 kilometers away), so the rockets can be tested and integrated without being shipped across the country. Tobi Duschl added, \u201cThe integration of our 3D rocket printing and test facilities on a single site allows Relativity to offer greater flexibility to commercial and government entities that want to go into space faster, more frequently and more economically<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The testing sites of the Canadian company | Credits: Relativity<\/p><\/div>\n

The aggressive nature of Relativity\u2019s goals has been somewhat put in perspective. In a recent article published in MIT Technology Review<\/a>, entitled \u2018Does the world need a 3D-printed rocket?\u2019, the author mentions other aerospace companies\u2019 perspective on Relativity\u2019s activities. It writes, \u201cEven fellow rocket companies aggressively pursuing 3D printing aren\u2019t entirely convinced this is how the future of additive manufacturing looks<\/em>. Rocket Labs, one of only a few small satellite launchers that fly commercial flights, has relied on additive manufacturing to create some complex components<\/em>.\u201d The CEO of Rocket Labs, Peter Beck explains in the article that \u201cThere\u2019s no <\/em>way that we can produce the volume and the performance of the engines that we\u2019re producing now without 3D-printing technology.\u201d But an entire rocket? \u201cTo go and print an avionics box or tank or something like that doesn\u2019t make any sense, because there\u2019s much more efficient processes for doing that<\/em>. \u201d This is one of the interesting insights of the article, something to keep in mind.<\/p>\n

For 2021 and 2022, Relativity has already publicly announced that three clients have booked launches \u2013 the Canadian communications company Telesat, Washington-based Spaceflight and Thailand\u2019s mu Space.<\/p>\n

You can find more information HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What do you think of Relativity Space? Let us know in a comment below or on our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0pages! Sign up for our free weekly\u00a0Newsletter<\/a>, all the latest news in 3D printing straight to your inbox!<\/p>\n

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Relativity, the world\u2019s first autonomous rocket factory and launch services leader announced at the beginning of June that it secured an agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The company will install part of its production at one…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6064,"featured_media":14504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerospace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6064"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14502"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14510,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14502\/revisions\/14510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}