Long Beach California Welcomes Relativity Space
Relativity Space is a private American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, founded in 2015. It is developing its own launchers and rocket engines for commercial orbital launch services. Now it just secured its new headquarters in the hub of the aerospace community in Long Beach. The facility will be home to the company’s business operations and its fully automated, metal additive manufacturing production line, housing 300 employees.
Relativity Space plans to produce Terran 1, the world’s first fully 3D printed rocket by using machine learning, software, robotics, and additive manufacturing. The company is shaking 60 years of aerospace history with Terran 1 because it aims to push the rocket’s reliability with 100x fewer parts than traditional rockets and a flexible no fixed tooling and a simple supply chain. The lack of fixed tooling in its production facility will launch Relativity into an industry-leading position to meet the growing demands of the satellite market.
The rocket will be ready to launch in 60 days from its raw materials stage and that’s ten times faster production time. They say that the autonomous factory will become the future technology stack for the entire aerospace industry.
Spanning 120,000 square feet, the facility will have a ceiling of 36 feet high to facilitate the printing of tall structures. The floor space will be used to fully build Terran 1, the Aeon engine assembly, the integrated software, avionics, and material development labs.
What is the driving motivation of this aerospace company?
Relativity Space wants to showcase additive manufacturing’s true capabilities in space flight technology. Their vision is to build humanity’s future in space, starting with a fully 3D printed rocket to launch satellites into orbit with plans to initiate its first launch in 2021. Long Beach welcomes the addition of Relativity to its economic community and 3D printing industry, a groundbreaking for new jobs and new technologies in the space sector.
