Rocket startup Relativity experiencing money troubles
According to a report from Bloomberg today and based on anonymous sources, the rocket startup Relativity is experiencing serious cash shortages that threaten its future.
Relativity Space Inc., the privately held US maker of 3D-printed rockets that once soared to a $4.2 billion valuation, is running low on cash, raising questions about the future of its launch business, people familiar with the matter said.
The company has faced challenges raising additional capital, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is confidential. Relativity, which last launched a rocket in March 2023 and has plans to launch its larger Terran R in 2026, hasn’t reached a decision on a path forward.
It is hard to say whether this information is correct. However, the story also had this tidbit that I myself have heard from my own sources:
The company also announced plans to incorporate more traditional manufacturing methods with Terran R, moving away from using 3D printing.
Since from its very founding Relativity touted 3D printing as the wave of the future, claiming its decision to build its rockets entirely in that manner would produce rockets fast and cheaply. That it is no longer doing this suggests that reality was not the same as these visions, and the company discovered that it is better to look for the best way to do each thing rather than try to fit everything into the same mold.
It also appears that the company spent a lot of its capital trying to make 3D printing work, and as a result it is now short of cash.
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According to a report from Bloomberg today and based on anonymous sources, the rocket startup Relativity is experiencing serious cash shortages that threaten its future.
Relativity Space Inc., the privately held US maker of 3D-printed rockets that once soared to a $4.2 billion valuation, is running low on cash, raising questions about the future of its launch business, people familiar with the matter said.
The company has faced challenges raising additional capital, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is confidential. Relativity, which last launched a rocket in March 2023 and has plans to launch its larger Terran R in 2026, hasn’t reached a decision on a path forward.
It is hard to say whether this information is correct. However, the story also had this tidbit that I myself have heard from my own sources:
The company also announced plans to incorporate more traditional manufacturing methods with Terran R, moving away from using 3D printing.
Since from its very founding Relativity touted 3D printing as the wave of the future, claiming its decision to build its rockets entirely in that manner would produce rockets fast and cheaply. That it is no longer doing this suggests that reality was not the same as these visions, and the company discovered that it is better to look for the best way to do each thing rather than try to fit everything into the same mold.
It also appears that the company spent a lot of its capital trying to make 3D printing work, and as a result it is now short of cash.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
They might have done better as a business if they had started out as a large scale 3D printing company making large and small parts for other companies. Maybe body panels for cars, or even internal combustion engines.
Then add the rocket production on the side.
Completely agree with pzatchok. The company likely has some proprietary printing technology, which I would think they are looking for ways to leverage, or outright sell.
And if something is ‘confidential’, why are you talking about it, Anonymous Sources?
This is why America needs MSFC…investors hear the old adage of how aerospace turns billionaires into millionaires—-and VCs simply are more risk averse than Elon, who can throw money into hardware.
Jeff Wright,
Your thesis causes me to recall erstwhile British Prime Minister Disraeli’s distinction between misfortune and calamity – the former exemplified by his main opponent Gladstone falling into the Thames and the latter exemplified by someone pulling him out. It would be a misfortune if Relativity were to go under, but it would be an outright calamity if MSFC was ever tasked with designing another rocket.
Here is my definition of a calamity:
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/early-european-rocketry-projects.4130/page-7#post-698135
They didn’t even try to save anything.
Here, folks lament how this or that LV is a “boondoggle” or “hobby rocket.”
But at least things get *built*
China, like SpaceX, at least try to find ways to support aerospace…different economic systems—but you have at least some level of commitment.
An aerospace library disposed of?
No wonder Europe is behind.
Have the Greens done THAT much damage?
I can’t comprehend that….