#3DStartup: Relativity Space, Creating 3D Printed Rockets for Mars

Additive manufacturing pushes the earth’s limits and invades space : Relativity Space is a perfect example! This American startup has invented a 3D printing method to create whole rockets that could well take off in a few years. Their Stargate process would indeed be able to manufacture a complex rocket in 60 days, more cost effectively and obviously faster than traditional manufacturing methods. Relativity co-founder Tim Ellis is convinced that 3D printing is the future of aerospace manufacturing. So we met him to learn more about the ambitions of this young man and the technology used.

3DN: Could you introduce yourself and tell us about how Relativity Space started?

My name is Tim Ellis and I’m the co-founder and CEO of Relativity. Relativity is working to create an entirely new process to build and fly rockets. Before starting Relativity I was a propulsion development engineer at Jeff Bezos’ space company, Blue Origin. While there we had incredibly fast deadlines to complete projects, and to meet these deadlines I metal 3D printed the first parts at Blue Origin.

After seeing their success, I then put together the business case and roadmap to start the metal 3D printing division at Blue Origin, and pitched senior management and Bezos to let me implement it. Seeing how much faster and cheaper this process was, me and my co-founder, Jordan Noone (SpaceX), got together and wondered why not do this for an entire rocket instead of just a few parts? That originally inspired the idea to start Relativity. We then got funding from Y Combinator and Mark Cuban, and have since raised over $10M toward this idea of automating rocket production through robotic 3D printing the whole rocket.