Jane Edwards
Los Angeles-based aerospace firm Relativity Space has raised $140M in a round of Series C financing led by technology investment company Bond and venture capital firm Tribe Capital.
“With the close of our Series C funding, we are now one step closer to that vision by being fully funded to launch Terran 1 to orbit as the world’s first entirely 3D printed rocket,†Tim Ellis, CEO and co-founder of Relativity Space, said in a statement published Tuesday.
Terran 1 is a 3D-printed launch vehicle and is expected to transition to commercial service by early 2021.
Other investors that participated in the funding round were Playground Global, Social Capital, Y Combinator, Republic Labs, Jared Leto, Mark Cuban, Lee Fixel, Spencer Rascoff and Michael Ovitz.
Relativity Space will use the funding to further expand its Stargate aerospace factory, which uses 3D printing technology, robotics, machine learning and software to accelerate rocket development work.
The company has secured a two-decade Commercial Space Launch Act agreement with NASA for five test sites, a 20-year lease for a 220K-square-foot facility at the agency’s Stennis Space Center and a launch site right of entry from the U.S. Air Force at a Cape Canaveral-based launch complex in Florida. It also secured satellite launch services contracts from Telesat, mu Space, Spaceflight Industries and Momentus.
