David Giger bounded up 26 steel steps and emerged onto a rocket engine test platform. Off to his left, an unbroken stand of stately pine trees spread out over the Mississippi lowlands. Straight ahead, Giger had a clear view of two Apollo-era test stands through the trees. “It’s quite a view,” he said.
Read MoreBuilding a rocket is a big operation, even when you’re printing them from the ground up, like Relativity Space . The launch startup is graduating from its initial office, which is a bit cramped for assembling rockets, to a huge space in Long Beach, where the company will go from prototype to first flight.
Read MoreWith their manufacturing square footage increasing fivefold to 3D-print rocket components for orbital missions, Relativity Space is taking a run at the space business.
The young company, fresh off a $140 million Series C round in late 2019, announced they have secured a massive 120,000 sq. ft manufacturing facility and operations center in Long Beach, California to make rocket parts quickly, cheaply and reliably.
Read MoreRelativity Space, a startup using 3-D printing to manufacture small launch vehicles, will move its headquarters to Long Beach, joining several other launch vehicle companies in that Southern California city.
Relativity announced Feb. 28 that it is moving into a 120,000-square-foot facility in Long Beach that will serve as its new headquarters and launch vehicle manufacturing facility. Company officials had said for months that they were looking for a larger facility as they outgrew existing space in Los Angeles.
Read MoreFor a factory where robots toil around the clock to build a rocket with almost no human labor, the sound of grunts echoing across the parking lot make for a jarring contrast.
“That’s Keanu Reeves’ stunt gym,” says Tim Ellis, the chief executive and cofounder of Relativity Space, a startup that wants to combine 3D printing and artificial intelligence to do for the rocket what Henry Ford did for the automobile. As we walk among the robots occupying Relativity’s factory, he points out the just-completed upper stage of the company’s rocket, which will soon be shipped to Mississippi for its first tests. Across the way, he says, gesturing to the outside world, is a recording studio run by Snoop Dogg.
Read MoreSpace start-up Relativity Space just raised the money it needs to transform the rocket supply chain in the U.S. with 3D printing.
Read MoreRelativity Space's 3D-printed rocket will help send satellites to more zones in orbit through a new agreement announced Wednesday (Sept. 11) with Momentus.
Read MoreRocket startup Relativity Space has yet to fire anything into space. But customers are already writing big checks.
Read MoreThis team of engineers is using one of the world's largest 3D metal printers to build rockets, and it could shake up the space industry as we know it.
Read MoreRelativity Space, the Mark Cuban-backed startup that is building 3D rockets, already has another contract -- one with mu Space, a satellite and space technology company based in Thailand.
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