Relativity Space’s 3-D Printed Rocket Fails Just After Launch

Following the success of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, investors have poured money into new spaceflight companies. A number of these businesses have interplanetary ambitions, including Relativity Space, which announced last year that it would team up with another company called Impulse Space to send a private space mission to Mars, aiming to beat Mr. Musk’s company to the red planet.

But many nascent spaceflight companies experience difficulties in their early attempts to get to orbit. In January, a Virgin Orbit spacecraft failed an hour into its flight; the company since has furloughed employees. Another company, ABL Space Systems, lost its first rocket just after liftoff from a base in Alaska. And even established rocket builders lose new rockets on their first flight. Earlier this month, a new rocket built for Japan’s space agency by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which has produced rockets for decades, failed minutes into its first flight and lost the satellite it was to deploy.

Wednesday’s Relativity flight did not lose a customer’s satellite. Its only cargo was a wheel-shaped object, the first thing ever made by Relativity’s 3-D printers, which was to demonstrate the rocket’s ability to carry a payload to orbit.

The flight, which the company nicknamed “Good Luck, Have Fun” or G.L.H.F., was the company’s third launch attempt in the past two weeks. The previous two were canceled for a range of technical issues shortly before liftoff.

During Wednesday’s launch, the company noted some of the milestones achieved by the rocket. It was the first time a 3-D printed rocket had reached “max-q,” the point when the vehicle experiences the strongest stresses, and also stage separation, when the booster used for liftoff drops from the vehicle’s second stage.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/23/science/relativity-space-launch-terran.html