Relativity Space 3D-Printed Terran R Gets NASA Nod for Mars Mission

NASA has added Relativity Space's Terran R to its approved commercial launch roster. The September 9 NLS II award makes the Long Beach company eligible to bid on future NASA missions. What makes this unusual is that Terran R has never flown once, yet NASA already assigned it a Mars orbiter mission for 2028.

A confirmed Mars mission before first flight

In June, NASA announced a public-private partnership under which Relativity Space will build the spacecraft and supply the Terran R rocket to carry the Aeolus instrument suite to Mars. NASA's first six-year Space Act Agreement of its kind pairs the agency's atmospheric science instruments with Relativity's rocket and cruise operations.

The Aeolus payload includes four instruments designed to measure Martian wind speeds, temperatures, dust, and clouds from orbit. The goal is to build better atmospheric models for future crewed missions. A 2028 launch window is fixed by orbital mechanics. Missing it pushes the mission back roughly 26 months.

How Terran R compares to Falcon 9

Terran R stands 284 feet tall and 17.7 feet in diameter. Its reusable configuration puts 23,500 kilograms in low Earth orbit, or 33,500 kilograms expendably. That puts it in the same payload class as SpaceX's Falcon 9.

The first stage uses 13 Aeon R engines burning liquid methane and liquid oxygen. Methane burns cleaner than the kerosene used by Falcon 9's Merlin engines, which reduces coking deposits and maintenance between flights. The Aeon R uses a gas generator cycle, simpler than SpaceX's full-flow staged combustion design but operationally proven.

From 85 percent 3D-printed to a hybrid approach

Relativity's earlier Terran 1 was approximately 85 percent 3D-printed by mass using its Stargate wire-arc additive manufacturing process. That rocket reached space in March 2023 but never achieved orbit. For Terran R, the company switched to a hybrid approach: conventional metal-forming for large tank barrels, 3D-printed structural components elsewhere.

CEO Eric Schmidt, the former Google executive chair, has positioned the company as a development-to-operations transition. Relativity holds more than $3 billion in launch service agreements across government and commercial customers. Whether Terran R delivers depends first on a rocket that has not yet flown.

Terran R is targeting a debut launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Launch Complex 16. Reporting from September 10 suggests that timeline has likely slipped into 2027. Neither Relativity nor NASA has publicly revised the schedule.