NASA selects Eric Schmidt’s rocket company for a 2028 mission to Mars
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- Relativity Space was selected by NASA under a public-private partnership to provide the spacecraft, rocket, and cruise operations for the 2028 Aeolus mission to Mars.
- Aeolus will carry four instruments designed to provide the first integrated, daily, global view of Martian winds, temperatures, dust, and clouds.
- The atmospheric data will "directly inform entry, descent, and landing systems and support safer, more predictable mission planning for astronauts," according to NASA.
- Eric Schmidt, who served as Google CEO from 2001 to 2011, became Relativity Space's CEO in 2025.
- Relativity Space previously launched the "world's first 3D-printed rocket," Terran 1, which failed shortly after launch.
- The company's larger Terran R rocket — needed to carry the Mars payload — isn't scheduled for its first launch until later this year.
Why it matters: The 2028 Mars contract gives Relativity Space its first interplanetary mission before its Terran R rocket has even completed its debut launch, a high-stakes bet on a company whose only prior rocket failed. The atmospheric data Aeolus gathers feeds directly into NASA's entry, descent, and landing systems for future crewed Mars missions, tying the company's fortunes to NASA's astronaut program.
