NASA selects Eric Schmidt’s rocket company for Mars mission, sets up race with SpaceX

Relativity Space—the rocket manufacturer that was acquired by former Google chairman Eric Schmidt last year after it stumbled on its way to orbit—may just beat SpaceX to Mars.

On Tuesday, NASA said it has hired a company to build a spacecraft that will load a series of scientific instruments, launch it into space, and fly to Mars.

The structure of the contract is similar to the agreements made by NASA and SpaceX to fly cargo to the International Space Station, or Firefly Aerospace to put a traveler on the Moon. A government agency manages the science, and a private company provides the infrastructure for cheap.

Aeolus, as the mission is called, will contain four instruments to measure and image Mars from orbit, providing what NASA expects to be the first daily, global view of dust, winds, and temperature in its atmosphere. The agency said the information would make it safer for local residents and, one day, astronauts to visit the Red Planet.

“By pairing NASA’s world-class instruments with innovation and investment, we can deliver more science, more often, and reduce the time it takes to get critical data into the hands of researchers preparing for future human missions to Mars,” NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement.

The mission will be launched in 2028—a fast pace that will require Relativity to design and build the spacecraft that will carry the Aeolus instruments, and finish building the rocket that will take it into space, all on a tight timeline. NASA did not disclose how much it is paying Relativity for the mission, and Relativity did not respond to questions from TechCrunch.

Isaacman, who has flown twice into space on private SpaceX missions, has championed public-private partnerships. Under this model, a NASA affiliate takes on some of the project’s development costs, in exchange for allowing NASA to stretch its budget further—a structure that has become a template for how the agency funds ambitious projects without bearing all the financial risk itself.

But NASA is also taking a risk: The correlation is unproven, and there is no guarantee that the mission will end it completely. NASA’s first partners either ran out of money or saw the moon landings in disarray. The company’s potential profits are intended to extend beyond the NASA contract itself, including commercial applications, such as launching satellites or delivering cargo to the Moon. However, as this collaboration progresses into space, the market becomes more favorable for commercial services.

Relativity was founded in 2015 by two former SpaceX and Blue Origin engineers, with the idea of ​​using 3D printing for superpowers as a way to build a cheap rocket. The company’s first design, Terran-1, was launched in March 2023 and failed mid-flight. The correlation is doubled down by moving to a larger design, called the Terran R.

Before Relativity took it to the launch pad, the company ran into fundraising challenges, and Schmidt took a major role in the company last year, stepping in as CEO. He has been tight-lipped about investments but has expressed interest in orbital data centers, and is thought to be using Relativity to launch a space telescope, Lazuili, funded by his philanthropic family, Schmidt Sciences.

The former technology executive’s decision to take over the space company last year puzzled some observers because rocketry is a crowded and capital-intensive business. But increased demand for new rockets—spurred by delays to Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin—could still lead to Schmidt’s payoff if the Terran R makes it to space.

And the new contract could give Schmidt a chance to put one on Elon Musk, his usual ally on the AI ​​safety issue. While Musk has long talked about his Martian ambitions, SpaceX has never sent its mission to Mars (no, Tesla that launched into space in 2018 is not missing).

If Relativity’s Aeolus is launched in time, it could be the first secret mission to reach the Red Planet.