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Former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt will take over leadership of rocket developer Relativity Space, the company confirmed March 10.
Schmidt takes over as the Long Beach, California-based company looks to soon enter the medium-to-heavy launch vehicle market. He is replacing Relativity co-founder Tim Ellis, who has served as CEO since the company’s founding in 2015.
Relativity’s Terran R rocket was designed for first-stage reusability, with the capability to launch 23,500 kg (51,800 lb.) to low Earth orbit (LEO) or 5,500 kg to a geosynchronous transfer orbit, both with downrange landing, or up to a maximum payload of 33,500 kg to LEO in expendable configuration.
The rocket completed the system-level critical design review in December 2024. Relativity is now “deep into engine testing,” Josh Brost, vice president of business development at Relativity Space, said March 10 at the Satellite 2025 Conference & Exhibition in Washington.
Expect to see images of “lots of flight hardware on our floor” as the company works toward Terran R’s first flight, he added. The company is building critical primary structures, including first-stage panels, second-stage barrels, the thrust structure and Aeon R engines, it said in a separate March 10 update.
Terran R is “really designed to hit that sweet spot on the market for the LEO constellations,” Brost said. Relativity Space’s first effort, Terran 1, was a smaller, fully 3D-printed rocket that lifted off on its first—and only—flight on March 22, 2023, from Launch Complex 16 at Cape Canaveral. The vehicle failed to reach orbit after a problem with the second-stage engine, and the company pivoted to develop the larger Terran R rocket.
“By the time we flew Terran 1, we'd sold five times as many dollars' worth of Terran R missions as we had Terran 1,” Brost said. Relativity has signed $2.9 billion in agreements for its medium-to-heavy launch vehicle, “just showing how desperate the market is for another cost-effective, launch service provider,” he added. Relativity is currently targeting Terran R’s first launch in 2026 from Cape Canaveral.
Schmidt served as chief executive of Google from 2001-11 and executive chairman of Google and its parent company, Alphabet, from 2011-17. He also served as chairman of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Advisory Board from 2016-20, after being recruited to the role by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter.
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