A splashy California-based launch company named Relativity Space shared a photo of sleek-looking rocket hardware on its social media channels last wee

Relativity Space has gone from printing money and rockets to doing what, exactly?

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2024-09-04 11:30:02

A splashy California-based launch company named Relativity Space shared a photo of sleek-looking rocket hardware on its social media channels last week. The image featured an impressively large payload fairing, which protects satellites on the ride into space.

"Time to take a look at Terran R’s payload envelope," the company said, calling attention to three people standing to the left of the tall fairing.

Such an anodyne post seems an unlikely candidate to spark an analysis of what is really happening at Relativity Space, but that’s exactly what happened. Less than an hour after its publication, a source I've been talking to about Relativity for a while contacted me again.Enlarge / Relativity Space posted this image of a payload fairing on social media last week.Relativity Space

A little digging into the photo revealed some interesting details. For example, the exit sign in the background is characteristic of those found in Europe rather than the United States. Soon, it became clear that this photo was taken inside the fairing factory of a company called Beyond Gravity, formerly known as Ruag Space, which is based in Emmen, Switzerland. And at the base of the fairing there is a large, white placard blocking a sign, which apparently discloses that this hardware was built for Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket.