A Private Company Will Build and Launch NASA's Next Mars Orbiter in 2028 — and It's Not SpaceX
Relativity will build the spacecraft and Terran R rocket, while NASA supplies instruments for the first daily global view of Martian weather.
- On Wednesday, NASA announced a partnership with Relativity Space to launch the Aeolus probe to Mars in 2028, with Relativity CEO Eric Schmidt providing the spacecraft and rocket.
- NASA's Ames Research Center will integrate four instruments to monitor Martian wind, dust, and temperature, generating environmental data required to reduce risk for future crewed and uncrewed landings.
- This partnership carries high risk, as Relativity has never reached Earth orbit. The announcement follows the loss of MAVEN, declared unrecoverable at the end of 2025.
- The spacecraft will fly what Relativity calls a "Relay Data Center" to run AI models on board and beam large data volumes back to Earth. Relativity promises to release all scientific data, algorithms, and automation learnings to the world.
- If successful, Relativity could become the first private company to reach Mars, fulfilling Schmidt's stated ambition and establishing a rivalry with Elon Musk, who has long promised Mars colonization.
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A private company will build and launch NASA's next Mars orbiter in 2028 — and it's not SpaceX
A California-based company will design, build and launch a spacecraft for NASA's Aeolus mission to orbit around Mars, where the probe will be the first to provide daily measurements of the planet's global environment.
The Relativity Space, which in 2028 plans to launch a vehicle (ANSA)
NASA payload to ride commercial Mars orbiter from rocket biz yet to reach orbit
It might not yet have reached Earth orbit, but Relativity Space has announced plans for a mission to Mars carrying a NASA payload. The mission, dubbed Aeolus and scheduled for 2028, will launch a Mars orbiter carrying four NASA-built instruments. Relativity Space will supply the rocket, spacecraft, and cruise operations, while NASA will deal with the payload. The four instruments comprise a Doppler wind and temperature-sounder, a thermal limb so…
NASA picks Eric Schmidt's Relativity Space for Mars
NASA is partnering with Relativity Space, the rocket company run by former Google chief Eric Schmidt, to fly a science mission to Mars. Announced on June 17, the mission is called Aeolus, the first flight in Relativity’s new Interplanetary Sciences Program. The company will build the spacecraft, provide its Terran R rocket, and fly the […] This story continues at The Next Web
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