World’s First 3D-Printed Rocket Fails Lift Off On Second Launch Attempt

Relativity Space’s Terran 1 3D-printed rocket failed to launch after two attempts on Saturday.

Terran I had been due to launch on Wednesday this week but was scrubbed due to oxygen temperatures in the rocket’s second stage landing outside of normal limits.

In a tweet, Relativity Space said it had pushed back its initial launch attempt at 1:45 PM ET today by an hour to 2:45PM ET because of “upper-level wind violations.” 

Terran I had been due to launch on Wednesday this week but was scrubbed due to oxygen temperatures in the rocket’s second stage landing outside of normal limits.

As Engadget reports(Opens in a new window), a boat entering the spacecraft’s range today interrupted the countdown. The countdown resumed but this was short-lived. The company aborted the launch when Terran 1’s nine first-stage Aeon engines cut off immediately after firing up. Relativity Space described that engine failure as a “launch commit criteria violation” and pushed the launch back to 4 PM ET. 

In tweets(Opens in a new window), the space company said that a “corner case in the stage separation automation properly aborted at T. 5 seconds.” In response, the Relativity Space team pushed an update to the vehicle automation and successfully recycled the vehicle before the second attempt.

Tweet(Opens in a new window)

This final launch attempt was aborted too, however, and was called before the 3D-printed rocket’s engines were ignited. The space company, which said that the vehicle was “healthy”, said on Twitter that there had been an “automated abort on stage 2 fuel pressure, which was only one PSI low.” This had happened at T-45 seconds, the company said.

Relativity Space further tweeted(Opens in a new window): “The team went HARD today and we intend to do so during our next attempt. More to come on the new launch date and window soon.”

Relativity Space(Opens in a new window) was founded by Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone in a bid to show that space launch costs could be significantly lowered by using 3D-printing techniques to manufacture rocket parts. 85% of the Terran 1’s mass as well its entire structure is 3D-printed. It also features 10 first and second-stage engines that are 3D-printed, while Ellis and Noone plan to manufacture a follow-up rocket that owes 95% of its mass to 3D-printed material.