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Relativity Space

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FACTORY OF
THE FUTURE

ROCKETS BUILT AND FLOWN IN DAYS

Relativity's proprietary Factory of the Future centers on Stargate, the world’s largest metal 3D printers, that create Terran 1, the world’s first 3D printed rocket, and the first fully reusable, entirely 3D printed rocket, Terran R, from raw material to flight in 60 days. Relativity’s Stargate printers’ patented technology enables an entirely new value chain and innovative structural designs that make Terran 1 and Terran R possible. By developing its Factory of the Future and rockets together, Relativity accelerates its ability to improve design, production, quality, and speed.

Zero fixed tooling and radical part count reduction

LEARN ABOUT TERRAN

POWERING THE STARGATE PRINTER

METALLURGY

Relativity developed multiple proprietary alloys custom designed for 3D printing to meet mission-critical performance.

UNIFORMITY

Parts are inspected during and after printing to ensure they meet the highest standards of uniformity and quality.

THE FUTURE IS 3D PRINTED

For 60 years, aerospace manufacturing has relied on large factories, fixed tooling, complex supply chains, and extensive manual labor to build costly rockets comprised of 100,000+ parts in 2 years or longer. 

To accelerate innovation in the industry, Relativity built its Factory of the Future, the first aerospace platform to automate rocket manufacturing, vertically integrating intelligent robotics, software, and data-driven 3D printing technology. Incorporating Stargate, the world’s largest metal 3D printer with AI-driven controls, our Factory of the Future continuously optimizes production, resulting in greatly compounded quality and time improvements, lower costs, and product designs previously not possible.  

Relativity is an application-layer 3D printing company that is starting with rockets, and will extend its Factory of the Future to all of aerospace. 

Rigid Factories, Fixed


tooling & HIGH Labor Costs

100,000+ Part Count

24 Month Build Time

48 Month Iteration Time

Complex Supply Chain

High Physical Complexity

ADAPTABLE, SCALABLE


AUTONOMOUS ROBOTICS

<1,000 Part Count

2 Month Build Time

6 Month Iteration Time

Simple Supply Chain

Software Defined Factory

CHANGING THE WAY ROCKETS ARE BUILT AND FLOWN

Custom designed


for printing

  • High strength alloys specially designed for Stargate printers
  • Physical properties designed to meet mission-critical structural requirements
  • In-house material characterization lab for quickly iterating on new alloy development
  • Relativity developed multiple proprietary alloys custom designed for 3D printing to meet mission-critical performance

    • UNIFORMITY
  • Parts are inspected during and after printing to ensure they meet the highest standards of uniformity and quality.

REAL-TIME QUALITY CONTROL


AND PART INSPECTION

  • Intelligent data-driven manufacturing
  • Machine learning control algorithms
  • Collaborative additive and subtractive process enables complex geometry

Collaborative robotics


and path planning

  • Verification and validation data captured during manufacturing
  • Flexible and highly scalable system architecture
  • Cloud-based manufacturing simulation and training

Relativity Space unveils new fourth-gen Stargate 3D printer: technical specifications and pricing

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Californian rocket manufacturer Relativity Space has introduced the latest version of its Stargate 3D printer. 

According to Relativity Space, its fourth-generation system “defies traditional printing constraints” in that it manufactures horizontally, feeding multiple wires into a single printhead. Using its new machine, the firm is developing and producing parts of the Terran R, an upcoming rocket that’s set to be capable of launching up to 20,000 kg into low Earth orbit (LEO).

“Large-scale products that are designed to fly will inevitably be 3D printed,” said Tim Ellis, Co-founder and CEO of Relativity Space. “The lighter a product is, the better it performs, and when 3D printing that product, it’s also faster and more cost-effective to produce with each successive improvement. The compounding rate of progress is high, and we are still in the early days of what printing can achieve. ” 

The fourth-generation Relativity Space Stargate 3D printer. Photo via Relativity Space.

Preparing the Terran R for take-off 

Working from a former Boeing C-17 manufacturing plant in Long Beach known as the ‘Wormhole,’ Relativity Space continues to develop and deploy its vertically-integrated rocket 3D printing platform. This Stargate system is at the center of a ‘Factory of the Future,’ in which 3D printing, AI and autonomous robotics are combined, to create a constantly improving, orbital rocket-building workflow. 

Already, the manufacturer has utilized the facility for 3D printing the Terran 1 rocket, a launch vehicle designed to propel payloads of up to 1,250 kg into LEO, powered by nine Aeon 3D printed engines, each capable of producing 23,000 pounds of thrust. 

With Relativity Space raising over $1.2 billion, and gaining Terran 1 satellite launch deals from the likes of Iridium Communications and Telesat, it has increasingly redirected its R&D efforts towards the Terran R. Unlike its predecessor, the company’s latest rocket is set to be fully-reusable, as well as being powered by new Aeon R engines, with each producing up to 250,000 pounds of thrust during launch. 

By June this year, Relativity Space had secured $1.2 billion in Terran R launch contracts, including a multi-launch agreement with OneWeb and a commercial mission to Mars with Impulse Space. At the Wormhole, the firm is using several Stargates to produce Terran R components, with this number set to hit more than a dozen in the coming months. The rocket’s new Terran R engines, meanwhile, are being produced at another facility nearby, which has been nicknamed ‘The Portal.’

The Relativity Space Terran 1 rocket being prepared for launch. Photo via John Kraus, Relativity Space.

A new, software-driven Stargate 

Though Relativity Space hasn’t released the full technical specifications of its fourth Stargate 3D printer, it’s understood to be seven times faster than its predecessors. The machine’s horizontal print orientation also enables the production of parts up to 120 feet long and 24 feet wide, giving it a capacity 55 times greater than the third-generation before it. 

When it comes to print quality, the new Stargate features an advanced ‘perception technology,’ which combines computer vision, sensors and telemetry to unlock real-time process monitoring. This advanced setup is set to be supplemented by a software the firm is developing, which draws on machine learning methods to allow for the creation of more complex and significantly larger metal parts. 

The fourth-generation Stargate will be the primary production tool used to build the Terran R, in a way that enables a radical reduction in its part count, while accelerating its development. Additionally, the rocket will be the first in a series of products to benefit from use of unique in-house developed materials, which are said to be lighter and faster to process, thus unlocking cost savings downstream.  

Ultimately, in the years to come, Relativity Space believes the new Stargate will drastically alter supply chains, by enabling the production of rockets from 100-times fewer parts, over a matter of months. As such, the company views its latest system as being capable of “accelerating progress and innovation” in aerospace, while also making gains in the lucrative aviation, energy and defense sectors. 

“Stargate printers are designed to unlock rapid iteration, which opens up opportunities for innovation in large-scale manufacturing products,” added Ellis. “What would take traditional aerospace and space manufacturers years to develop and build, will be reduced down to months due to a highly adaptable, scalable, and automated process, made possible through software-driven manufacturing.”

“We see 3D printing as an automation technology that has the power to change the pace of innovation in manufacturing, which is why we’ve invested in building our own proprietary tech stack from day one. ”

Left: The Terran 1 rocket. Right: The Terran R rocket with 20x payload capacity. Image via Relativity Space.

Technical specifications and pricing 

Below are the technical specifications for the fourth-generation Relativity Space Stargate 3D printer. Although it doesn’t yet outwardly market the system for sale, those interested in either adopting the machine or the Terran rocket can contact Relativity Space for more information today. 

Build Volume Orientation Horizontal 
Print Capacity 120 (L) x 24 (W) feet 
Print Throughput Four Terran Rs per year
MaterialProprietary lightweight alloy
SensorsRobotics-led Path Planning
SoftwareCustom ML-driven Platform 

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Featured image shows the fourth-generation Relativity Space Stargate 3D printer. Photo via Relativity Space.

Tags Impulse Space Iridium Communications OneWeb Relativity Space Scott Van Vliet Stargate Telesat Terran 1 Terran R Tim Ellis

Paul Hanaphy

Paul is a history and journalism graduate with a passion for finding the latest scoop in technology news.

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New Stargate Replica Design

3D Modeling

Fans are always excited to see 3D printed replica props from popular movies and games. This time, the holiday has come to the street lovers of the Stargate universe. An amateur designer named Kara McNab has created a wonderful replica of Chappa Eye, that is, in fact, a high-tech ring-shaped gadget for interplanetary travel, colloquially referred to as "stargates". nine0005

If you haven't watched the Stargate movies or series, Chappa Eyes are used as portals that connect to each other for instant travel between planets and ships. Delivery of pizza in 14 and a half seconds after cooking? Easy. Unless, of course, you have your own gate and a similar installation is available in a pizzeria.

The gates themselves are “decorated” with symbols whose meaning scientists have been unraveling for 70 years. As it turned out, these symbols display various constellations used as coordinates when “setting the address”. During the set, the ring rotates and the luminous “chevrons” turn on in turn. Kara managed to make a detailed model of the gate with a mechanical drive and lighting. Of course, this entertaining model can (and should) be printed, although some parts will need to be purchased off the shelf. Luckily, the project isn't all that complicated, and Cara has thoughtfully included detailed printing and assembly instructions. Now you know what to do on the weekend. nine0005

The finished model is 42 cm in diameter, which is enough to teleport the neighbor's cat. Provided that you find a nuclear reactor, of course - the energy costs of interplanetary travel are quite large.

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