---
title: "A Fully 3D-Printed Rocket Is Not as Crazy as it Seems. Investors Agree."
description: "California startup Relativity Space raised $35 million to expand its operation and make the dream of sending a 3D printed rocket into space a reality."
date: "2018-03-28"
modified: "2018-03-28"
authors:
  - name: "Lou Del Bello"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/loudb"
url: "https://futurism.com/relativity-3d-printed-rocket"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "3d printing"
  - "mars"
  - "NASA"
  - "SpaceX"
---

# A Fully 3D-Printed Rocket Is Not as Crazy as it Seems. Investors Agree.

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/relativity-aeon-ignite-2.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://www.relativityspace.com/" target="\_blank"\>Relativity Space\</a\>\</em\>*

60 days.

That's how long it will take to produce and launch a rocket if the parts are 3D printed, [according to the CEO](<https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/27/relativity-space-series-b-round-3-d-printing-rockets-gets-35-million.html>) of Relativity Space, a startup that seeks to do just that.

Flying something made completely of 3D-printed parts into space sounds, frankly, pretty bonkers. But investors are on board. The Los Angeles-based startup recently secured $35 million to go ahead [with its plan](<https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/27/relativity-space-series-b-round-3-d-printing-rockets-gets-35-million.html>) to produce a fleet of spacecraft using one of the largest 3D printers known to man, known as Stargate.

Relativity is not the first company to bring 3D printing to space. [SpaceX](<http://www.spacex.com/news/2014/07/31/spacex-launches-3d-printed-part-space-creates-printed-engine-chamber-crewed>) has done it for its reusable rockets, and [even NASA](<https://futurism.com/what-nasas-first-3d-printed-rocket-parts-mean-for-the-space-launch-system>) is looking into which spacecraft parts can be made more reliably and cheaply by 3D printers.

But Relativity stands alone in that it wants to print nearly all of a rocket — 95 percent of it — and by cutting the number of components that go into it, from [from 100,000 to fewer than 1,000](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/03/relativity-space-reveals-its-ambitions-with-big-nasa-deal/>).

Since its launch in 2015, the company has raised more than $45 million, promising to speed up the production of rockets. The company plans to use this most recent cash infusion to buy a second Stargate printer, and to grow its staff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD3KvwUPTD8

A first round of tests on the company's 3D-printed Aeon engines should be carried out before the end of the year. Relativity wants to put nine of those engines on its Terran rocket, which will have a 3D-printed booster, too. The company expects that each launch will cost about $10 million.

Relativity aims to send about 1,250 kg (2,756 pounds) into orbit. That's minuscule compared to SpaceX's Falcon Heavy [payload](<http://www.spacex.com/falcon-heavy>) of 64,000 kg (64 metric tons, or 141,096 lbs), which is more than 50 times bigger, but quite a bit larger than the smallest rockets around, which can [carry up to 150 kilograms](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/01/rocket-lab-makes-it-into-orbit-nears-commercial-operations/>).

But that's just fine for Relativity. The company wants to tap into different markets, mostly launching [commercial telecommunication satellites into low orbit](<https://qz.com/866776/a-billion-dollar-investment-from-japanese-tycoon-masayoshi-son-will-fuel-onewebs-ambitious-plan-to-deliver-fast-satellite-internet/>), and feels no compulsion to compete with the likes of SpaceX or NASA. And if you consider that NASA recently made it clear that [it has no intention of buying SpaceX's rockets](<http://www.techtimes.com/articles/223783/20180327/nasa-nope-we-won-t-be-buying-falcon-heavy-rockets-from-spacex.htm>), Relativity's plan seems to be a safer bet.

One day, [*Ars Technica* reports](<https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/03/relativity-space-reveals-its-ambitions-with-big-nasa-deal/>), the startup hopes to send its rockets to Mars and back. But for now, it's secured a solid foot on Earth, with a 20-year lease of NASA's 25-acre E4 Test Complex at Stennis Space Center, in Mississippi.

Relativity plans to launch a first test flight by the end of 2020, *Ars Technica* notes. Should that be successful, commercial launches will begin in 2021.