First launch of 3D-printed rocket from Relativity Space scrubbed

The first 3D-printed rocket will have to wait another day to make its inaugural blast into space.

The 110-foot-tall Terran 1 rocket, built by Long Beach, California-headquartered Relativity Space, was scheduled for its initial flight from Cape Canaveral on Wednesday. But the launch was scrubbed “due to exceeding launch commit criteria limits for propellant thermal conditions on stage 2,” the company said on Twitter.

Relativity Space “is working diligently toward our next launch window in the coming days,” the team said.

The Terran 1, which is a prototype with no customer payload, had been scheduled to liftoff, then undergo a stage separation, second engine start and cutoff, and achieve orbit.

Florida Today:Relativity scrubs its first 3D-printed rocket launch from Cape Canaveral

Rocket launch schedule:Upcoming Florida launches and landings

Florida Today reported. Early in the countdown, teams began troubleshooting issues with reaching the right liquid oxygen temperature in the second stage, so that issue needs to be resolved before the next attempt.Relativity Space set for first launch of its 3D printed Terran 1 rocket

Relativity Space:Preparing for the launch of its first 3D-printed rocket

The goal of the initial launch is to prove the 7.5-feet diameter, 3D-printed vehicle is durable enough for launch and space flight. 

Liftoff and getting over the Atlantic and passing Max-Q, the point in the flight when the rocket will be at maximum stress would “be a big inflection point,” the company said in a discussion of launch success on Twitter. “Why? Because it’s the phase of flight where the structural loads on the vehicle are the highest, passing this point in flight proves our hypothesis: 3D printed rockets are structurally viable!”

Should the Terran 1 – dubbed “Good Luck, Have Fun” or “GLHF” – make it to low Earth orbit (LEO), Relativity Space will consider it “a total home run,” Space.com reported, citing an email from Relativity Space representatives.

Relativity’s interstellar plan to go to Mars.

Last year, the company announced plans with Impulse Space of El Segundo, California, to develop a Mars Cruise Vehicle and Mars Lander on a Terran R rocket no earlier than 2024.

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @mikesnider.

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