Tim Ellis

Cofounder, Board Member, & fmr CEO of @RelativitySpace

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

Today marks a bold new chapter for @relativityspace - read below:

Some dreams are so audacious they’re worth dedicating significant years of your life to.

Nine years ago, we scribbled Relativity’s wild vision on the back of a Starbucks receipt, never imagining how many incredible people would believe, join, invest in us, and work incredibly hard to build this company despite the risks. From first-ever 3D-printed rockets launched into space, to the next-generation reusable Terran R flight hardware now being built, it’s been awe-inspiring and profoundly humbling. Truly, thank you to everyone involved.

Today marks a powerful new chapter as Eric Schmidt @ericschmidt becomes Relativity’s CEO, while also providing substantial financial backing. I know there’s no one more tenacious or passionate to propel this dream forward. We have been working together to ensure a smooth transition, and I’ll proudly continue to support the team as Co-founder and Board member.

I’m deeply grateful to be part of creating something that will continue to grow, evolve, and contribute to the future of humanity in space. Onwards!

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

@lrocket Rad!

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

Proud of @richellellisart 💜 excellent creative work and leadership in her artwork, published at the National Academy of Sciences @theNASciences. She’s trailblazing her own path and I couldn’t be happier for her recent progress!

https://t.co/jmSBwF0XXC

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

Badass!

[Relativity Space @relativityspace]

Throughout July, Terran R continued advancing toward first flight, with the stage one structural qualification campaign complete and stage two testing kicking off at NASA Stennis.

🔩 Build: The stage one shipping assembly was fully released, with work across the stage one flight article progressing alongside flight two tank production and welding.
🧪 Test: Completed the stage one structural qualification campaign in Long Beach. Over at NASA Stennis, stage two completed cryoproof and COPV proof testing.
🏗️ Launch: At LC-16, the HIF was energized, the assembly room crane passed its first proof load test, and the transporter erector upper strongback was moved into the assembly room.

[Relativity Space @relativityspace]

Engine integration has begun! The first Aeon R engines are now installed on Terran R’s thrust structure.

💪 The thrust structure will house 13 Aeon R engines, each producing 269,000 lbf of sea level thrust for a combined thrust of 3,497,000 lbf at liftoff.
🔥 Each engine has successfully completed acceptance testing before installation on the vehicle.
🌀 Custom ground equipment precisely positions each engine for installation, then will rotate the fully integrated thrust structure into position for mate with stage 1.

One step closer to a fully integrated stage 1!

[Relativity Space @relativityspace]

Stage 2 testing is officially underway at NASA Stennis 🚀

The campaign kicked off with successful cryoproof, loading the stage with cryogenic fluids and pressurizing it beyond expected flight loads to validate its structural integrity, followed by COPV manifold proof testing to verify the high-pressure system that will pressurize propellants during flight.

These tests also marked the activation of A2, bringing together the infrastructure, flight hardware, ground and vehicle software, and the integrated team of test, launch, and vehicle engineers.

Next up: hot fire capable assembly work, then back to the stand ahead of stage hot fire testing. 🔥

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

Huge milestone on route to launch

[Relativity Space @relativityspace]

Stage 1: qualified 💪

The dedicated test article successfully completed structural qualification, undergoing:
✔️ 420 pressure cycles
✔️ 62 proof, stability, and ultimate loading cases
✔️ 4.3 million lbf of axial compression while pressurized

This campaign validates that the stage 1 tank is ready to withstand the demanding loads of ground operations, launch, and flight. Onward!

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

Team been cooking for quite a long time, and all that hard work is really showing itself more visibly by the day 🚀

[Relativity Space @relativityspace]

Terran R continues moving closer to first flight, with major testing milestones underway and operations scaling across the program.

🏗️ Build: All vehicle structures and closeouts were completed on the stage 1 qualification article, transitioning the hardware from manufacturing to factory test.
🔥 Test: Stage 1 qualification testing began, stage 2 arrived safely at NASA Stennis, and acceptance testing was completed for all flight one Aeon R first stage engines.
🌴 Launch: At LC-16, water farm tanks were installed, LOX farm tanks activated, and infrastructure continued advancing toward operational readiness.
🔭 Advancing science: We announced the Interplanetary Sciences Program (ISP), expanding our work to advance interplanetary science.

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

@SciGuySpace @ericschmidt Yes, and @ericschmidt and team are doing a great job too. Excited for what’s to come!

[Relativity Space @relativityspace]

💫 More missions. More science. More discovery. Today, we're launching the Interplanetary Sciences Program to advance deep space science missions through foundational technologies and payloads.

Proud to partner with @NASA , industry, and academic institutions on a science orbiter mission to Mars in 2028 for philanthropic customer.

What we discover belongs to everyone. All scientific data will be released to the world, fostering open collaboration.

Learn more: https://t.co/91Z2s2rogC

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

Really cool mission

[SpaceNews @SpaceNews_Inc]

Relativity Space to privately develop Mars orbiter mission https://t.co/3MHOVh0ZML

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

@KTmBoyle Epic

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

Fun fact: at @relativityspace our first rocket Terran 1 (and subsequently Terran R) was initially named Antoni 1 after Gaudi. My sister lives in Barcelona and after seeing his structures I was in awe - incredible fusion of art and science with a lot of biomimicry and mathematics. We renamed our rocket lineage to Terran in honor of StarCraft and a more American name, although ironically competitive StarCraft was biggest in South Korea.

[Trung Phan @TrungTPhan]

Antoni Gaudi died 100 years ago today.

He was 73 and spent over 40 years working on La Sagrada Familia (completing 1/4th of entire basilica).

Gaudi’s method for designing it was genius: he hung movable weights on strings and let gravity do the work of showing the proper angles and force vectors for his nature-inspired look.

He then flipped the model upside down to see how to build the columns and arches.

Also inspired by forests and sea life, the legendary architect once said, “there are no straight lines or sharp corners in nature.”

In the final years of his life, Gaudi’s was solely focussed on the project. His diet was lettuce leafs dipped in milk. Lived inside the Basilica and barely slept on a simple cot.

He died after getting hit by a tram while walking aroudn Barcelona. His clothes was so ratty — underwear held together with safety pins — that passerbys thought he was homeless.

The city held a massive funeral for him with 30,000 people packing the streets.

While 3/4 of La Sagrada Familia was undone, Gaudi left enough plans (models, drawings) for future generations.

La Sagrada Familia was largely dormant for a few decades 1930s-1960s (Spanish Civil War, World War II, early Cold War).

Some of Gaudi’s designs were so ahead his time that it would require the development of aeronautical design software to complete his vision.

Gaudi once remarked that “my client” — referring to God — “is not in a hurry”.

There is still work to be done but a major milestone was completed in February: workers installed a cross on top of La Sagrada Familia, making it the tallest church in the world (172.5 meters or 566 feet).

It’s also the tallest structure in Barcelona. But Gaudi intentionally capped the height because “human creation should not pass God’s work.”

The Montjuïc Hill in the southwestern part of Barcelona is ~570 feet.

***

Video link: https://t.co/LmmquC3dlT

[Relativity Space @relativityspace]

The Terran R program entered a new phase in May as stage 2 rolled out of Long Beach and began its journey to NASA Stennis.

🏗️ Build: Completed stage 2 integration while advancing thrust structure, interstage, and stage 1 qualification hardware.
🔥 Test: Aeon V second stage engine completed its qualification campaign, hitting key service life, duration, and start milestones for flight one.
🌴Launch: Water tower reached its final height at 305 feet; lightning protection system erection continued

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

@Starship_20 :) thanks for supporting

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

@rookisaacman @RaminNasibov Cool. Terran is named after this. Stargate was too.

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

@MollySOShea @_Eric_Romo @GoToImpulse Aligned with this thesis

[Molly O’Shea @MollySOShea]

BREAKING: Eric Romo (@_Eric_Romo), President & COO of Impulse Space (@GoToImpulse) says:

"The idea that launch prices are going to fall significantly in the next 5 years is nonsense."

"I think there are an awful lot of business models that are predicated on “when Starship allows me to launch for $200 a kilogram…” I think they’re all broken, & all those companies are going to fail."

"I think we’ve seen this play out already with Falcon 9 & the pricing around it, where the costs of Falcon 9 allowed SpaceX to deliver the Starlink constellation at a cost per CapEx that made them profitable.

But they set the price in the market at something that just barely made it an okay investment to think about OneWeb or Kuiper or anything like that. So they ran that playbook exactly on Falcon 9, & they had their gross margins on Falcon 9—people think we’ll see when the S1 comes out—are like 50% plus. So they could have dropped the price, & they didn’t.

They’re going to do the same thing on Starship, because why wouldn’t they? Their internal costs on Starship are going to be whatever they need to be to deploy Starlink & orbital data centers, but they’re going to set the price so that anybody trying to do comms, anybody trying to do orbital data centers—the price is going to be too high.

So if you’re a third party relying on them for a lower price of access to space, I think you’re hosed."

00:20 Hot Take Launch Prices
01:41 SpaceX Market Power
02:23 Impulse Space Overview
02:54 Mira For GEO Defense
03:45 Helios Direct To GEO
05:19 Caravan Rideshare To GEO
06:42 Space Economy Reality Check
08:46 Tom Mueller Legends
10:54 SpaceX IPO
13:42 Investor Frenzy & Broomstick
14:05 Alien Eyeballs Outro

@elonmusk

Recorded at @NYSE x @payloadspace Space Summit

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

Awesome update, proud of this team! And @ericschmidt great job and progress

[Relativity Space @relativityspace]

The November Terran R program update is out. Progress is building across design, build, test, and launch as hardware and infrastructure ramp forward.

🏭 On the floor, teams completed all circumferential welds on the first stage tank and wrapped acceptance testing on the second stage tank.

🖥️ Thrust structure HITL hardware integration is complete, enabling software, avionics, and partner teams to validate designs ahead of run-for-record testing.

🔥 At NASA Stennis, testing continues with both Aeon R and Aeon V engines.

🌴 At LC-16, the water tower tank is now placed atop the downcomer, with siding and structural work continuing across the HIF.

...and much more.

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

@isaiah_p_taylor Huge hire he really is uniquely amazing.

[Tim Ellis @thetimellis]

@isaiah_p_taylor Congrats @muhammadshahzad on your new company! Huge hire for them and I know you will be just as transformative and amazing as you were as a leader critical to Relativity’s growth the past few years.