© Mark Ollig
Wednesday, March 22, at 10:25 pm, a US aerospace company launched Terran 1, the world’s first 3D-printed space rocket.
The brilliantly radiant orange-red and blue flames cast by the nine first-stage engines of Terran 1 illuminated the night sky as they propelled the rocket during its ascent from Launch Complex-16 in Cape Canaveral, FL.
Terran 1 was manufactured by Relativity Space, headquartered in Long Beach, CA.
As I watched the live broadcast of the launch from the comfort of my recliner, the announcer said, “We just completed a major step in proving to the world that 3D-printed rockets are structurally viable.”
The first leg of the flight went smoothly, with the vehicle safely traveling through the region of maximum dynamic pressure, or Max-Q.
Next, a successful main engine cutoff, or MECO, and first-stage separation occurred.
However, when it was time for the second-stage engine to ignite for a five-minute burn to speed the rocket up to 17,500 mph for earth orbital insertion, the engine failed to maintain ignition.
The second-stage camera showed the engine briefly igniting with red flame, then stopping, followed by intermittent sparks discharged from the engine nozzle.
Clay Walker, the launch director from Relativity Space, reported an anomaly with the second-stage engine.
The 3D-printed rocket reached a maximum speed of 4,628 mph and could not attain earth orbit.
Terran 1 briefly entered space before falling back to earth and splashing into the Atlantic Ocean, some 400 miles east of Cape Canaveral.
“Today’s launch proved Relativity’s 3D-printed rocket technologies that will enable our next vehicle, Terran R. We successfully made it through Max-Q, the highest stress state on our printed structures. We will assess flight data and provide public updates over the coming days,” read a statement from Relatively Space.
Terran 1 rocket was designed for orbiting the earth and placing payloads in space; however, this test flight did not carry any.
The rocket is 85% 3D-printed using proprietary metal alloys and raw materials. It was built in 60 days using Stargate, the world’s largest 3D metal printer.
According to Relativity Space, their Stargate 3D-printing technology breaks the rules of regular printing by moving side-to-side while feeding multiple wires into a single print head.
The 20,458-pound, 110-foot tall, and 7.5-foot wide Terran 1 is an expandable 3D-printed rocket with two stages.
It is designed to take a 2,755-pound payload into an earth-orbit altitude of 1,200 miles.
Terran 1 was assembled using artificial intelligence, robotics, and autonomous manufacturing technology fabricated exclusively in the United States.
The Terran 1 3D-printed space rocket is a cutting-edge example of modern American engineering and technology using raw materials, advanced manufacturing processes, and human expertise.
The rocket has nine 3D-printed Aeon 1 engines in the first stage, with one 3D-printed Aeon Vacuum engine in the second stage.
It will be the first US-made reusable methalox-fueled rocket to run on a binary rocket fuel composed of liquid oxygen oxidizer and liquid methane, suitable for reaching earth orbit and, eventually, for making trips to Mars.
The 3D-printed rocket’s first stage uses nine engines, producing 207,000 pounds of thrust at liftoff.
Relativity Space personnel are at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, NASA Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, and Washington DC.
I contacted Riagan McMahon, a media relations representative for Relativity Space, who provided me with information and photograph permissions for today’s column.
Relativity Space is developing innovative computer programs and advanced manufacturing methods using machine learning to 3D-print larger, more complex metal objects.
They are also constructing a fully reusable 3D-printed heavy payload space vehicle, Terran R, capable of transporting 44,000 pounds of cargo into earth orbit.
Relativity Space will use their Stargate fourth-generation metal 3D printers to construct a 216-foot tall Terran R space rocket within their one-million-square-foot manufacturing plant in Long Beach, CA.
Although Terran 1 failed to reach earth orbit due to a second-stage separation issue, the launch successfully demonstrated the real-world ability of a 3D-printed rocket to go through liftoff, Max-Q, main engine cutoff, and first-stage separation.
You can watch the world’s first 3D-printed rocket liftoff from Cape Canaveral on Relativity Space’s YouTube channel from the T-minus 31 seconds and counting mark: https://bit.ly/3Tzjhc9.
