Four instruments, one Mars orbiter, and a launch date of 2028. That is the package NASA announced when it picked Relativity Space, the rocket company now led by former Google chief Eric Schmidt, to fly its Aeolus mission to the Red Planet.
The bottom line: NASA supplies the science, Relativity supplies the ride. The company is to build the spacecraft, provide its Terran R rocket and run the cruise to Mars. NASA has not disclosed what the agreement is worth, and Relativity has released few technical details.
What Aeolus is built to measure
NASA expects the four instruments to deliver the first daily, global view of Martian dust, winds, clouds and temperature. A radar will also look at shallow ice and geology below the surface. Engineers care because weather decides how an entry, descent and landing plays out. An orbiter that watches the whole planet every day could tell mission teams more than the narrower schedules of existing spacecraft can.
Beyond Tmrw, a space-industry site, reported that the suite includes a Doppler wind and temperature sounder, a limb sounder, surface radiometric sensors and a wide-field camera. It also said that NASA would operate the instruments for at least one Martian year, roughly 687 Earth days, under a six-year Space Act Agreement.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that “by pairing NASA’s world-class instruments with commercial innovation and investment, we can deliver more science, more often.” He added that “public-private partnerships like this are a force multiplier for science.”
A rocket that has not flown
This is where investors and mission planners will pay attention. Relativity was founded in 2015 by former SpaceX and Blue Origin engineers, with 3D printing as its pitch for cutting production costs. Its first rocket, Terran 1, flew in March 2023 and failed when the second stage stopped working. The company dropped that vehicle and moved its resources to Terran R, a larger reusable design.
Terran R has not completed an orbital launch. Beyond Tmrw put its first flight at late 2026. Relativity must finish the rocket, build the Mars spacecraft and hit the 2028 window at the same time, and a delay in any major piece could push the mission to a later window.
Schmidt took a majority stake in 2025 and became chief executive. Briefs reported that the company had run into fundraising trouble before he stepped in. Relativity has also said it plans a Relay Data Center in Mars orbit, which would process information onboard before sending it to Earth by optical and radio links, and it intends to publish the mission’s science data publicly.
The award could set up a race with SpaceX. Elon Musk has talked about Mars missions for years, but SpaceX has not flown a company mission there. Briefs noted that NASA’s record with startup partners is mixed: some went bankrupt before delivering, and one Moon lander tipped over on arrival. Its verdict was that if Relativity stumbles the agency loses a mission, but if it works NASA gets Mars data for a fraction of what an in-house program would cost.
Sources
- NASA Backs Eric Schmidt’s Relativity Space for Commercial Mars Mission in 2028
- NASA Picks Relativity Space for 2028 Mars Mission
- NASA Mars Mission 2028 Relativity Space Partnership
