Update: For the second time the planned launch of the 3D printed rocket has been canceled.
The first-ever 3D-printed rocket is set to lift off from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Center this weekend.
Relativity Space is behind the historic launch scheduled for Saturday, March 11, with a three-hour launch window opening at 1 p.m. ET.
The 110-foot rocket is built with 85% 3D-printed material. Relativity Space is headed by former SpaceX and Blue Origin engineers. The name of this mission is Good Luck Have Fun or “GLHF.”
The launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but it was scrubbed in the last hour of its three-hour launch window. The company said that the issue was with the temperature of the propellant in the Terran 1 rocket’s second stage and that they have been working out how to fix the problem.
Even without a launch Wednesday the company is cutting new territory.
“It’s pretty critical that they are going down this path of 3D printing. You can do a lot of different structures with 3D printing that you can’t do with traditional manufacturing techniques,” Don Platt at Florida Tech said. “And of course, they hope to do it in a cheaper way and a more rapid way.”
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