Relativity Space

Relativity Space is a Long Beach, California launch company that became a national-security story in March 2025, when Eric Schmidt — the former Google chief executive who chaired the US AI national-security commission — took over as CEO and majority investor, the first operating role he has held since leaving Google. Co-founder Tim Ellis, who started the company in 2015 with Jordan Noone, moved to the board. Schmidt’s arrival came as Relativity was straining for cash, and it folded one of the most prominent figures in defence-tech policy into a private rocket maker.

The company’s distinguishing bet is manufacturing. Relativity builds rockets using large-scale 3D printing, automation and software-driven production, an approach it argues lets it iterate hardware far faster than conventional aerospace. Its first vehicle, the 3D-printed Terran 1, flew once in 2023 and reached space but not orbit. The whole company is now organised around Terran R, a two-stage, partially reusable medium-to-heavy-lift rocket designed to compete with SpaceX ’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy — roughly 23,500 kg to low Earth orbit when the booster is recovered, powered by thirteen in-house Aeon R engines, with a first flight targeted for no earlier than 2026 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Relativity reports a launch backlog of nearly $3 billion.

The warfare-AI tie here is honest to acknowledge: Relativity is primarily a commercial launch provider, and its own materials frame Terran R around broad commercial and scientific missions rather than weapons. What pulls it into national-security relevance is twofold. Schmidt himself — through the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence and his Ukraine drone venture — has spent years arguing the US must out-build adversaries in autonomous systems and space, and he has publicly cast his Relativity work in that frame. And launch capacity is itself becoming a contested military resource: the Pentagon and Space Force are pushing reusable, responsive launch that can put assets on orbit in hours, and a second heavy-lift provider reduces dependence on a single supplier. Relativity already counts government entities among its customers.