Relativity Space to privately develop Mars orbiter mission

NASA is sending an orbiter to Mars with Eric Schmidt's Relativity Space

NASA has teamed up with Eric Schmidt's Relativity Space for a 2028 Martian mission.

As NASA picks former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s rocket company for Mars mission, some analysts see it as a 'risk'

Tech News News: NASA has tapped former Google CEO Eric Schmidt's rocket startup Relativity Space to launch an ambitious new Mars mission. The space agency said that i.

NASA picks Eric Schmidt's rocket company for Mars mission, setting up a race with SpaceX

Relativity Space—a rocket maker acquired by former Google executive chair Eric Schmidt last year after stumbling on the path to orbit—might just beat SpaceX to Mars.

Relativity Space to privately develop Mars orbiter mission

Relativity Space plans to launch a Mars orbiter in 2028 as part of a new initiative to privately develop planetary missions. The post Relativity Space to privately develop Mars orbiter mission appeared first on SpaceNews.

In June 2026, Relativity Space — the rocket company Eric Schmidt took over in 2025, whose one rocket has never reached orbit — said it would privately build and fly a Mars orbiter in 2028, carrying NASA's Aeolus atmospheric instruments and doubling as a communications relay, paid for by a philanthropic backer it has not named

Relativity Space has reached orbit exactly zero times. Its only rocket flew once, in March 2023, climbed cleanly through the hardest part of the atmosphere, and then a second-stage engine quit and the vehicle fell into the Atlantic a few minutes after liftoff. On June 17, 2026, that same company announced it would build and fly a science orbiter to Mars in 2028 anyway. The mission is the first under a newly created Interplanetary Sciences Progra…

NASA’s New Mars Partnership Sets Up A Private Race With SpaceX

NASA has selected Relativity Space to build, launch, and operate a Mars orbiter mission scheduled for 2028.