Relativity Space successfully test-fires 3D printed Terran rocket ahead of Mars mission

California-based aerospace company Relativity Space, on August 23, successfully completed a static fire test of the first stage of its Terran 1 rocket. In a recent update, the company revealed that it fired all nine Aeon 1 engines of the first stage of the rocket for a duration of 20 seconds ahead of its inaugural orbital launch later this year. 

According to Relativity, the Terran 1 rocket, also named GLHF (Good Luck, Have Fun) will lift off from the Launch Complex 16C of the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida without a customer payload. Interestingly, the Terran 1 rocket is the largest existing 3D printed object to attempt a launch. 

While the Terran 1 vehicle currently is 85% 3D printed by mass, Relativity is aiming to increase this number to 95%. The rocket has three components which include the first stage, with nine engines, the interstage in the middle and the second stage with one engine. 

“Like its structure, all Relativity engines are entirely 3D printed, and use liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid natural gas (LNG), which are not only the best for rocket propulsion, but also for reusability, and the easiest to eventually transition to methane on Mars,” the company says. Watch the video below to see the printing of Terran’s interstage. 

Standing 110 feet tall and 7.5 feet in diameter, the rocket has a dry mass of 9,280 kg and its payload carrying capacity is 1,250 kg to an altitude of 500 km. Currently developing Terran 1, Relativity will work its way up to the Terran R rocket which would be used during the first private mission to Mars. 

Relativity teams up with Impulse for the first private Mars mission

In July this year, Relativity announced that it has partnered with another startup Impulse Space to send the first commercial mission to Mars. Targeted for launch in 2024, the mission would include a lander and a cruiser by Impulse and a reusable and fully 3D printed rocket made by Relativity. If launched in the targeted schedule, the two companies will beat Elon Musk's SpaceX in sending a mission to the red planet.

Image: Relativity Space