3D打印火箭制造商Relativity Spacehas raised $650 million in Series E funding to ramp up the production of its new Terran R rocket, the company’s first reusable, fully 3D printed launch vehicle.
该公司宣布其针对Terran R的计划以及其系列E股票的结果，并将通过筹集的资金来扩大火箭的生产。发射车最终将为客户提供“点对点太空货轮”，能够在地球，月亮甚至火星之间执行任务。
Terran rwill also be a direct challenger to Elon Musk’sspaceXFalcon 9 rocket and the recently announced3D打印可重复使用的中子发射车来自航空航天公司火箭实验室。
“From our founding days in Y Combinator just five years ago, we planned on 3D printing Terran 1 and then Terran R – a 20x larger fully reusable rocket – on our Factory of the Future platform,” said Tim Ellis, CEO and Co-founder of Relativity Space. “Today, we are one step closer to this goal.
“Together with our first rocket Terran 1, our second product, Terran R, will continue to take advantage of Relativity’s disruptive approach to 3D printing – reduced part count, improved speed of innovation, flexibility and reliability – to bring to market the next generation of launch vehicles.”
相对性空间如何飞行
since entering the private space exploration market in 2015, Relativity Space has been developing its first 3D printed rocket, the Terran 1, in-house using itsStargate 3D打印机。长大了$500 million worth of investment在2020年，投资者的信心在今年晚些时候的Rocket首次发布之前就显得很高。
In 2019, the firm was given the go ahead to build a 220,000 square foot火箭建筑工厂在NASAstennis Space Center去年搬到了new Californian HQ到ramp up its production.
在过去的几年中，相对空间从卫星生产商等人那里获得了许多备受瞩目的合同虹膜通信andTelesat到将他们的小卫星发射到低地轨道上（狮子座）。该公司的Terran 1也已由国防承包商选择洛克希德·马丁for an upcomingcryogenic testing missionby NASA, and at the beginning of the year was awarded a$3 million NASA contract到launch multiple small satellites into LEO.
Most recently, Relativity Space landed itsfirst orbital launch contractfrom theUS Department of Defense（国防部）使用其Terran 1火箭向Leo发射有效载荷，目的是打开“作为服务”的低成本，响应迅速的空间访问。
“Relativity was founded with the mission to 3D print entire rockets and build humanity’s industrial base on Mars,” said Ellis. “We were inspired to make this vision a reality, and believe there needs to be dozens to hundreds of companies working to build humanity’s multiplanetary future on Mars. Scalable, autonomous 3D printing is inevitably required to thrive on Mars, and Terran R is the second product step in a long-term journey Relativity is planning ahead.”
一笔6.5亿美元的提升
To drive forward its long-term goals, Relativity Space has secured $650 million in Series E funding, led by investment firmFidelity Management and Research Company。
圆也看到从其他投资参与ors includingBaillie Gifford，，，，BlackRock，，，，Centricus，，，，外套，，，，K5 Global，，，，Soroban Capital，，，，老虎全球，，，，Tribe Capital，，，，andXN，，，，among others.
Additionally, well-known names such as Marvell Director布拉德公共汽车，，，，entrepreneur and billionaire马克古巴，，，，US actor贾里德·莱托，，，，and US entrepreneurspencer Rascoff还投资了资金回合。
The funds raised will be used to ramp up production of its Terran R launch vehicle, which is scheduled to launch in 2024 from Relativity Space’s site at Cape Canaveral, the same site from which the firm’s Terran 1 will launch later this year.
Terran r
Terran ris a two-stage, 216-foot tall rocket with a 16-foot diameter and five-meter payload fairing. The rocket is designed to be fully reusable including its engines, first stage, second stage, and payload fairing, and will be capable of launching over 20,000kg to LEO.
Terran rwill be fitted with seven entirely 3D printed Aeon R rocket engines delivering 302,000 lb of thrust each, while its upper stage will house one Aeon Vac engine. The Aeon R engine is a scaled, high pressure version of the gas generator cycle Aeon 1 due to fly on the firm’s Terran 1 rocket. The engine uses cryogenic liquid methane and oxygen propellants and runs with autogenous tank pressurization.
一旦建立,人族R能够发射ing 20 times more payload than the Terran 1. The rocket is designed to provide both commercial and government customers more affordable access to space, LEO, and beyond to the Moon and Mars.
“ Terran R处于火箭创新和设计的最前沿，”工程和制造高级副总裁扎克·邓恩（Zach Dunn）说。“ Terran R完全可重复使用，完全是3D印刷，非常适合满足客户在大型卫星星座行业不断发展的需求，同时也代表着实现我们建立人类工业基地的使命。”
Relativity Space has already signed its first anchor customer launch contract for the Terran R, adding to the company’s growing pipeline of commercial interest.
“There’s an organic relationship between 3D printing and reusability, and it gives us an unparalleled advantage to design the best fully reusable rocket possible,” added Ellis. “Over the last year, we found ourselves being asked by the market to accelerate development of our larger launch vehicle, so we knew it was time to double down on our existing plans and scale the Terran R program even faster and build production capabilities at scale sooner.”
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Featured image shows render of the reusable, fully 3D printed Terran R rocket. Image via Relativity Space.
