Blast Off! Relativity Space Plans Its Own Reusable Rocket

Francesca Billington

Francesca Billington is a freelance reporter. Prior to that, she was a general assignment reporter for dot.LA and has also reported for KCRW, the Santa Monica Daily Press and local publications in New Jersey. She graduated from Princeton in 2019 with a degree in anthropology.

Blast Off! Relativity Space Plans Its Own Reusable Rocket

Relativity Space, the Long Beach 3D-printed rocket maker, has unveiled plans to create a fully reusable rocket.

CEO Tim Ellis told CNBC that the move is an "obvious evolution" for the company. The announcement comes on the heels of a hefty $500 million round he closed in November.

"It's the same architecture, the same propellant, the same factory, the same 3D printers, the same avionics and the same team," Ellis told the outlet.


Dubbed Terran R, Relativity's second launch vehicle will carry 20 times the payload as its first model, which is slated to launch for the first time later this year, he said. That inches the company even closer to rivaling SpaceX's partially reusable rocket, Falcon 9.

The announcement kicks off a series of new initiatives. It's the five-year-old company's first big move since its latest round that bumped its valuation up to $3.2 billion. And Ellis told CNBC that Relativity is "in active dialogue" for a number of contracts for both rocket models.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk's SpaceX was valued at $46 billion in early 2020 after its own massive boost.

Relativity could not be immediately reached for comment.

The company boasts the world's largest robotic metal 3D printer that does away with the thousands of parts typically used to build rockets. The rockets require fewer than 1,000 parts and about 95% of each is 3D printed. And they're ready to launch in 60 days, Ellis told dot.LA last year.

Relativity's backers include Tiger Global Management, Playground Global, Y Combinator, Social Capital and Mark Cuban. dot.LA co-founder Spencer Rascoff is also an investor.

https://twitter.com/frosebillington
francesca@dot.la

Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.

Office Hours: Apex Founder Ian Cinnamon on Why LA Is the Aerospace Capital of the World

Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

​Ian Cinnamon
Ian Cinnamon

On this episode of Office Hours, Apex founder and CEO Ian Cinnamon discusses the importance of investing in space exploration and shares his thoughts on the evolving space ecosystem in Los Angeles.


Read moreShow less
https://twitter.com/spencerrascoff
https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerrascoff/
admin@dot.la

This Week in ‘Raises’: Measurabl Snags $93M, Selva Ventures Grabs $34M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Raises
Image by Joshua Letona

A local data management platform company lands fresh funding to help commercial real estate owners reduce carbon footprint, while one Los Angeles-based venture firm closes its second fund to accelerate the growth of emerging companies across health, wellness, beauty and personal care.

***

Read moreShow less

McKinsey & Company Launches InLA Accelerator To Help Underrepresented Founders Tackle Startup Challenges

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

McKinsey & Company Launches InLA Accelerator To Help Underrepresented Founders Tackle Startup Challenges
InLA

In 2022, female founders saw a 28% decline in overall U.S. funding, while Black-led startups saw a 38% decline in total capital received. In an effort to increase funding for minority-led startups, global venture firm McKinsey & Company is launching InLA, an accelerator program for underrepresented founders.

“This effort is something that the firm has been really excited about for a long time,” Engagement Manager Elkhyn Rivas Rodriguez said. “There's obviously a meaningful and growing startup community out here and just from a diversity standpoint, LA is incredibly diverse and multi-ethnic and multicultural. So we think that there will be a really great pool of potential companies to partner with.”

Read moreShow less
RELATEDEDITOR'S PICKS
LA TECH JOBS
interchangeLA
Trending