# Relativity Space A Long Beach, California rocket company founded in **2015** on the bet that the entire launch vehicle could be **3D-printed**. After a decade as a venture-darling startup that never reached orbit, it was effectively bought and taken over in March 2025 by [[Eric Schmidt]], who has repurposed it as the launch vehicle — literally — for his thesis that the AI compute race will move into space. Relativity is now best understood less as a rocket company than as the orbital-infrastructure arm of the Schmidt network, and a second-mover challenger to [[Elon Musk]]'s [[SpaceX]]. ## The 3D-printing premise Relativity was founded by **Tim Ellis** (CEO) and **Jordan Noone** (CTO), who met as students in USC's Rocket Propulsion Lab. Their pitch was that additive manufacturing could collapse a rocket's parts count and build time — printing engines and structures rather than machining and assembling thousands of components — and ultimately that the same factory model could one day build rockets on Mars. The company printed roughly **85% by mass** of its small **Terran 1** vehicle. Terran 1 flew once, in **March 2023** (the "Good Luck, Have Fun" mission). It failed to reach orbit after a second-stage engine problem, but survived max-q intact — which Relativity framed as proof that a largely 3D-printed airframe can withstand launch. Noone had already stepped down as CTO in **2020** to an advisory role and co-founded **Embedded Ventures**, a dual-use space VC firm. ## Pivot to Terran R One month after the Terran 1 flight (April 2023), Relativity announced it was abandoning the small launcher and going "all in" on **Terran R** — a much larger (~284 ft / 86.6 m), reusable medium-to-heavy-lift rocket aimed squarely at the commercial and government payload market dominated by SpaceX's Falcon 9. In the process the company quietly diluted its founding identity: Terran R uses a **"hybrid manufacturing" approach** rather than the all-printed vision, and Relativity has declined to say how much of it is actually 3D-printed. Terran R's debut has slipped repeatedly and is now targeted for **late 2026**. The company's valuation had topped **$4 billion** in 2021. ## The Schmidt takeover (March 2025) By early 2025 Relativity faced a cash crunch. [[Eric Schmidt]] stepped in with a reported **~$800 million** (some accounts say higher), took a **controlling stake**, and installed himself as **CEO and Chairman**, with co-founder Tim Ellis moving to the board. Reporting characterized the deal as a **down-round** relative to the 2021 peak — a distressed company absorbed by a single billionaire rather than a triumphant raise. The personal stake matters for the KB: this is not a passive Schmidt portfolio bet (cf. his ~57-company AI/defense investment spread tracked in [[Eric Schmidt News Log]]). It is direct operational control of a launch provider by a figure who simultaneously runs AI-policy influence vehicles (the Special Competitive Studies Project, the legacy of the National Security Commission on AI) and argues, in congressional testimony, that American AI competitiveness hinges on solving compute and energy. ## Orbital data centers — the real thesis Within weeks of the takeover, reporting coalesced around what Schmidt actually bought Relativity *for*: **putting data centers in orbit**. The logic ties directly to [[The Quest for 90 Gigawatts]] — if terrestrial grids cannot supply the power AI demands, space-based compute promises continuous solar power in sun-synchronous orbit and passive radiative cooling, an end-run around the permitting, land-use, and electricity constraints throttling data-center construction on Earth. Schmidt aired the underlying premise in **April 2025** House Energy and Commerce testimony about AI's electricity appetite; the orbital-compute play is the supply-side answer he is positioned to sell. SpaceX has floated a parallel concept, making orbital data centers a new front in the Musk–Schmidt rivalry. ## Aeolus: the 2028 Mars mission On **June 17, 2026**, NASA selected Relativity for **Aeolus**, a **2028 Mars orbiter** and the first flight of the company's newly announced **Interplanetary Sciences Program**. Relativity will build the spacecraft, fly it on Terran R, and carry four NASA-built instruments designed to deliver the first daily global view of Martian winds, temperature, dust, and clouds (data meant to make future landings safer). Crucially, the mission also flies a **"Relay Data Center"** — server-class compute and mass storage placed in Mars orbit, able to run AI models on board and beam large data volumes back to Earth via optical and radio links. Aeolus literalizes the whole thesis: the orbital-AI-infrastructure pitch, attached to a publicly funded NASA science mission, flown by a company whose only prior orbital attempt failed. It also reframes a government planetary-science layer as private infrastructure — Relativity provides the bus and the rocket, NASA provides the instruments and the prestige — while setting up a direct deep-space contest with SpaceX. ## KB significance Relativity is a clean case study in how a member of the [[Tech Oligarchy]] converts a struggling company into a strategic asset. Schmidt's recurring move — laundering a private financial interest into a national-competitiveness or national-security frame — runs through every layer here: the orbital data centers answer the AI-energy crisis he warns about; the Mars mission wraps that infrastructure in NASA's public mission; the Terran R program positions him to bid for the same government and defense launch contracts that built SpaceX. The page sits at the intersection of the Schmidt network, the orbital-compute vector of the AI-power story, and the broader privatization of space-as-infrastructure. Compare [[Stargate Project]] (terrestrial AI infrastructure as quasi-industrial policy) and [[SpaceX]] (the incumbent it is chasing). ## See Also - [[Eric Schmidt]] — owner, CEO, and Chairman since March 2025 - [[Eric Schmidt News Log]] — rolling coverage, including the June 2026 Aeolus selection - [[The Quest for 90 Gigawatts]] — the AI-energy crisis the orbital-compute thesis answers - [[SpaceX]] — the launch and orbital-data-center rival - [[Stargate Project]] — terrestrial counterpart in AI-infrastructure buildout - [[NASA]] — customer for the 2028 Aeolus Mars mission