Relativity Space (future launch provider)

[Beccab]

40 minutes ago, tater said:

 

TL; DR: relativity and Impulse (Tom Mueller's company) have announced they will collaborate for the first private mars mission in 2024 launching a small lander there on Terran R. The date seems highly unlikely considering Terran 1 has yet to launch, but I could see it being ready for 2026/2027 (but if the latter you still need to wait for 2028 in order for mars to be in the right spot)

[SunlitZelkova]

Nice. It’s pretty cool how they are directly challenging SpaceX in more areas.

They are basically low key claiming Terran R will get a commercial payload to Mars prior to Starship.

[tater]

2 hours ago, Beccab said:

TL; DR: relativity and Impulse (Tom Mueller's company) have announced they will collaborate for the first private mars mission in 2024 launching a small lander there on Terran R. The date seems highly unlikely considering Terran 1 has yet to launch, but I could see it being ready for 2026/2027 (but if the latter you still need to wait for 2028 in order for mars to be in the right spot)

Yeah, a very aggressive... one might say "aspirational" goal.

Cool.

 

4 minutes ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Nice. It’s pretty cool how they are directly challenging SpaceX in more areas.

They are basically low key claiming Terran R will get a commercial payload to Mars prior to Starship.

Yeah, which is great. BO certainly is not doing it.

 

[Beccab]

9 minutes ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Nice. It’s pretty cool how they are directly challenging SpaceX in more areas.

They are basically low key claiming Terran R will get a commercial payload to Mars prior to Starship.

Yup, that's the goal

"We're big fans of SpaceX and Starship," Ellis said. "But there's got to be more than one company working at this. I want to be the second company that steps forward and says this is important."

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Wen hop?

Relativity is scheduled for its first launch of Terran 1, called "GLHF" (Good Luck, Have Fun), from Launch Complex 16 (LC-16) in Cape Canaveral in summer 2022. This launch of Terran 1 is the first orbital attempt by Relativity and will not include a customer payload.

...

Looks at watch...

https://twitter.com/relativityspace/status/1549890702707830785/photo/1

Edited July 20, 2022 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[tater]

 

 

[tater]

 

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[tater]

 

[SpaceFace545]

51 minutes ago, tater said:

 

This is really exciting to see that Terran 1 has decent margins for improvement. This rocket really can be a modern Delta II replacement, a payload class that has been unfulfilled for a while.

[Beccab]

56 minutes ago, SpaceFace545 said:

This is really exciting to see that Terran 1 has decent margins for improvement. This rocket really can be a modern Delta II replacement, a payload class that has been unfulfilled for a while.

Relativity really does seem to have found its place, rapidly shifting from small launch (which at this point seems nearly completely satisfied by Rocketlab and rideshares) to bigger targets and reusability. The edge they can gain over RL is that the latter has stayed a bit too focused on Electron and only just started developing a medium launcher, which starts almost fully from scratch (new engines, next to no Electron commonality or even just simarities) and risks arriving late to the series of new launchers coming out in the next few years.

What they need to do now is for Terran 1 to be reliable after the first few attempts, else they risk becoming another Astra

[tater]

 

[tater]

 

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[tater]

 

[RealKerbal3x]

7 minutes ago, tater said:

 

Youtube link, if you don't like horrible compression (it's in 4k):

[tater]

 

[AckSed]

Those curled inlet tubes out of the turbopumps are wild. That the nozzle is just a placeholder, and they already have plans for the second version is encouraging. Also...

LNG as fuel? If it's straight LNG with the mix of hydrocarbons that's usefully cheap. If they use it without even removing the sulphur-based stenchants, that's a hell of a trick, as they cause cooling channel corrosion.

[tater]

March 8:

 

[Beccab]

Possible first methalox to orbit, and second to space!

[Beccab]

Wow

[AckSed]

The Kerbal spirit is strong in this one.

[tater]

 

[tater]

 

[tater]