{"id":18596,"date":"2018-03-21T21:36:19","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T13:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/relativity-strikes-deal-with-nasa-to-use-rocket-engine-test-complex-in-mississippi\/"},"modified":"2018-03-21T21:36:19","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T13:36:19","slug":"relativity-strikes-deal-with-nasa-to-use-rocket-engine-test-complex-in-mississippi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/relativity-strikes-deal-with-nasa-to-use-rocket-engine-test-complex-in-mississippi\/","title":{"rendered":"Relativity strikes deal with NASA to use rocket engine test complex in Mississippi"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_406274\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-406274\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-406274\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180321-relativity2-630x415.jpg\" alt=\"Aeon 1 test firing\" width=\"630\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180321-relativity2-630x415.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180321-relativity2-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180321-relativity2-1260x831.jpg 1260w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-406274\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Relativity\u2019s Aeon 1 engine undergoes a test firing at NASA\u2019s Stennis Space Center. (Relativity Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Relativity, a rocket startup with roots at Blue Origin and SpaceX, says it has been awarded an exclusive 20-year lease to use a 25-acre engine test complex at NASA\u2019s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.<\/p>\n<p>The arrangement furthers Relativity\u2019s plans to develop its 3-D-printed Aeon 1 rocket engine as the heart of its low-cost Terran rocket, with an eye toward starting commercial launches in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Relativity got its organizational start in Seattle two years ago, thanks in part to CEO Tim Ellis\u2019 background as a propulsion engineer for billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture in Kent, Wash. Relativity\u2019s chief technology officer, Jordan Noone, interned at Blue Origin and worked at SpaceX.<\/p>\n<p>Since its founding, Relativity\u2019s base of operations has shifted to Los Angeles, where it has a production facility that boasts the world\u2019s largest metal 3-D printer.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"AEON1_Stennis_4k\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/246498818?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The company has used Stennis as an engine testing ground for more than a year, but the lease for the space center\u2019s E-4 Test Complex kicks the relationship up a notch. In addition to four 32-foot-tall engine test cells, the facility includes a shop area, control rooms and a nearly 13,000-square-foot high bay.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRelativity pays maintenance and utilities out of pocket, but there are no direct lease or building fees,\u201d Ellis said in an email. \u201cThere is a 225-acre expansion option surrounding the initial 25-acre E4 test site, resulting in a 250 acre total contiguous site area.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ellis estimated that it\u2019d cost Relativity $30 million to build a comparable facility as an independent test site.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThus, the public-private partnership with NASA over this extended time frame represents a strong value addition by enabling Relativity to privately invest in proprietary automation and 3-D printing technologies instead of fundamental infrastructure,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_406270\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-406270\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-406270\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180321-teststand-630x475.png\" alt=\"E-4 Test Complex\" width=\"630\" height=\"475\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180321-teststand-630x475.png 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180321-teststand-768x578.png 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/180321-teststand.png 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-406270\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An aerial view shows the E-4 Test Complex at NASA\u2019s Stennis Space Center. (Relativity Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ellis said Relativity\u2019s infrastructure footprint size will rise from 10,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space in January to more than 40,000 square feet, thanks to the Stennis deal as well as an expansion of its L.A. headquarters.<\/p>\n<p>Relativity aims to bring down the cost of rocket production by automating 95 percent of the manufacturing&nbsp; process.<\/p>\n<p>The two-stage Terran rocket is designed to send up to 2,750 pounds (1,250 kilograms) of payload into low Earth orbit at a cost of $10 million per launch. Relativity\u2019s&nbsp;development plan calls for the first test launch to take place in late 2020, with commercial service beginning in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The company says it\u2019s nearing 100 test firings of its Aeon 1 rocket engine, and is holding hundreds of millions of dollars\u2019 worth of tentative launch commitments in the form of memorandums of understanding and letters of intent.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to his CEO role, Ellis serves as a member of the National Space Council\u2019s Users Advisory Group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Relativity\u2019s Aeon 1 engine undergoes a test firing at NASA\u2019s Stennis Space Center. (Relativity Photo) Relativity, a rocket startup with roots at Blue Origin and SpaceX, says it has been awarded an exclusive 20-year lease to use a 25-acre engine test complex at NASA\u2019s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The arrangement furthers Relativity\u2019s plans to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4585,291,190,1685,3312],"class_list":["post-18596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-3-d-printing","tag-commercial-space","tag-nasa","tag-relativity-space","tag-stennis-space-center"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}