Relativity Space Wins Contract to Launch US Military Payload on 3D-Printed Rocket in 2023 Written 16 March 2021
3D-Printed engine nozzle. | Credit: NASA
Space News reports that DoD has selected Relativity Space for the 2023 launch of a small military payload atop a 3D-printed rocket. The Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) “picked Relativity to become a launch services provider for the DoD Space Test Program’s Rapid Agile Launch Initiative [RALI]. RALI is a program managed by the Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center Launch Enterprise to identify viable commercial launch systems with capacity between 450 to 1,200 kilograms to low Earth orbit.” For the mission, Relativity Space “will use the Terran 1 small satellite launcher that is expected to fly for the first time later this year from Cape Canaveral, Florida.” Both Relativity Space “and DIU declined to disclose the value of the contract.”
Full Story (Space News)